Apprehension about the future: Investigating the phenomenological characteristics of episodic future thinking in socially anxious adolescents

Abstract

Background and objectivesSocial anxiety is a future-oriented mood characterized by apprehension about others’ negative evaluations in anxiety-provoking social situations that may occur in the future. Episodic future thinking (EFT) is a form of future-oriented cognition that allows a pre-experiencing of our personal futures. The literature suggests that anxious individuals show increased negative expectancies about future events. However, few studies have been conducted on EFT in social anxiety. The current study investigated the phenomenological characteristics of EFT in adolescents with high and low social anxiety. MethodsTwenty-two high social anxiety (HSA) and 24 low social anxiety (LSA) adolescents simulated one anxiety-provoking social event and one neutral event. They then rated the phenomenological characteristics of the events. ResultsHSA adolescents imagined anxiety-provoking social events from an observer perspective more than LSA adolescents. HSA adolescents also imagined anxiety-provoking social events as more negative and containing less clear contextual details than LSA adolescents. In contrast, no group differences were found for neutral events. Moreover, participants imagined more self-referential information for anxiety-provoking social events than neutral events. HSA participants imagined less other-referential information than LSA participants, regardless of the event type. LimitationsThis study used a subclinical sample with high and low social anxiety. The sample size was small, and only adolescents aged 15–17 years were included. It is difficult to generalize the present findings across different anxiety-provoking social events. The specificity of EFT was not evaluated. ConclusionsOur findings highlight the importance of EFT in the psychopathology of adolescent social anxiety.