Özet:

The purpose of the present study was to examine the extent to which self-esteem, initiating relationship, asserting infl uence, self-disclosure, emotional support, and confl ict management predicted the shyness of the university students according to gender. The sample of this study consisted of 859 (450 female, 409 male) undergraduate students enrolled in different faculties of Mersin University. Three instruments, namely, “Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale”, “Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire”, and “Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale” were used in the study. Stepwise regression was used to analyze the data and the alpha value of 0.05 was established as a level of signifi cance. The results of the analyses for the total and female sample groups revealed that initiating relationship, self-esteem, and asserting infl uence were the signifi cant predictors of shyness among university students. On the other hand, predictive roles of the variables were differentiated across male sample group. While initiating relationship and self-esteem had signifi cant predictive role on shyness among male university students, asserting infl uence did not have any signifi cant contribution to the prediction of shyness. Implications of the fi ndings were discussed and some suggestions were made for further research

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