Adult attachment and social anxiety: The mediating role of emotion regulation strategies.

Darryl L Read,William L Coventry,Adam J Rock,Gavin I Clark,Joseph M Trombello

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0207514

Abstract

Despite extensive evidence relating attachment dimensions to maladaptive interpersonal behaviours and dysfunctional emotion regulation strategies, few studies have explored social anxiety in the context of adult attachment dimensions. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether attachment-related anxiety and avoidance are associated with symptoms of social anxiety and whether cognitive emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal and suppression) play a role in the relationship between adult attachment and social anxiety. A sample of 253 adults (male n = 47, 18.6%; female n = 202, 79.8%; gender not disclosed n = 4, 1.6%) ranging in age from 18 to 74 years (M = 33.12, SD = 11.56) completed an online questionnaire that consisted of the Experience in Close Relationships–Revised Questionnaire (ECR-R); The Inventory of Interpersonal Situations Discomfort scale (IIS-D); and The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Results indicated that both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance have a direct effect on indices of social anxiety symptomology. Reappraisal partially mediated the relationship between attachment anxiety and social anxiety. However, the relationship between attachment avoidance and social anxiety was not mediated by the use of reappraisal and suppression. Findings of the study have implications for the development of clinical interventions targeting mediators of psychological distress associated with social anxiety.

Highlights

Social anxiety refers to anxiety which occurs in relation to social situations and which is most typically conceptualised as arising from the fear of negative interpersonal evaluation [1,2]
The present study aimed to evaluate whether the dimensions of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance are associated with social anxiety symptoms and whether maladaptive emotion regulation strategies mediate this relationship
Means and standard deviations of the Interpersonal Situations (IIS) Discomfort scale, when summing the 35 items to compute a total score, were 86.58 and 25.20, respectively, with a minimum score of 35 and a maximum score of 155 (Range = 120). (In the subsequent analyses, we used the mean of the ISS-D rather than the total to align with the other scales, where we used the mean)

Summary

Introduction

Social anxiety refers to anxiety which occurs in relation to social situations and which is most typically conceptualised as arising from the fear of negative interpersonal evaluation [1,2]. Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a common mental illness that is characterized by excessive fear of being scrutinized and judged by others in social situations [3]. For sufferers of SAD, the fear of negative evaluation, potential criticism, or the fear of acting in an embarrassing or humiliating way leads to significant distress and psychosocial impairment. Adults who experience high levels of social anxiety are excessively self-conscious, hold negative core beliefs about themselves, may be unassertive and withdrawn [4] and view themselves as being less socially competent than their peers [5].

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