Abstract
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) typically emerges during childhood or early adolescence and often has long-term effects on several areas of an individual's life, including school and education. The purpose of this study is to examine whether social anxiety is associated with (1) school functioning in terms of behavioral difficulties (hyperactivity and/or attention problems), school dissatisfaction, social exclusion, truancy, and learning difficulties, and (2) educational aspirations (educational level). We use data from the population-based Young-HUNT3 study (2006–2008), where 8,199 Norwegian adolescents participated. Social anxiety is measured both as self-report [the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C)], and as screening information from diagnostic interviews [Anxiety Disorder Interview Schedule for DSM IV: child version (ADIS-C)]. ADIS-C screening positives (n = 388) reported higher rates of behavioral difficulties (RR = 1.06), school dissatisfaction (RR = 1.15), social exclusion (RR = 1.24), truancy (RR = 1.05), and learning difficulties (RR = 1.10) compared to screened negatives. Self-reported social anxiety symptoms showed similar patterns. Further, higher mean scores of self-reported social anxiety symptoms and being ADIS-C screening positive were negatively associated with aspirations of higher education (OR = 0.92 and OR = 0.74, respectively). However, as regards to having aspirations for the future (aspirations of higher education and/or aspirations of vocational training), no associations were found. The results indicate that social anxiety in adolescence is related to unfavorable/poorer school functioning and lower tendency of aspirations of higher education, which may have consequences for future educational pathways and later work life.
Highlights
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common mental disorder across cultures (Stein et al, 2017) and associated with functional impairments affecting both social life and educational attainments (de Lijster et al, 2018; Vilaplana-Pérez et al, 2020)
The aim of this study is to investigate whether social anxiety is associated with (1) adolescent school functioning, in terms of (a) behavioral difficulties/attention problems, (b) school dissatisfaction, (c) experience of social exclusion, (d) truancy, and (e) learning difficulties, and (2) educational aspirations
No association was found for adolescents 16 yr or older. This large population-based study of >6,000 Norwegian adolescents shows that social anxiety was associated with lower school functioning as indicated by higher reports of behavioral difficulties/attention problems, school dissatisfaction, social exclusion, truancy and learning difficulties
Summary
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a common mental disorder across cultures (Stein et al, 2017) and associated with functional impairments affecting both social life and educational attainments (de Lijster et al, 2018; Vilaplana-Pérez et al, 2020). SAD is linked to academic underachievement, in terms of failing a grade in the last year of compulsory school (VilaplanaPérez et al, 2020), higher rates of school dropouts (Van Ameringen et al, 2003), and a lower tendency to enter higher education (Kessler, 2003; Vilaplana-Pérez et al, 2020). A 2-yr longitudinal study of Finnish adolescents aged 15–17 yr using a self-report instrument with a diagnostic cutoff found that SAD predicted slower academic progress among boys but not girls (Ranta et al, 2016)
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