Self-evaluation, social and cognitive performance in children with social phobia

Abstract

Cognitive models of Social Phobia (SP) assume that SP is not only associated with negative self-evaluation but also with impaired actual social and cognitive performance. However, relatively little is known about these aspects in children with SP. In our study, we investigated whether children with SP show differences in self-evaluation, as well as in social and cognitive performance during a social-evaluative situation. Therefore, a group of children aged 8 to 12 years with SP (DSM-IV; n = 35) and healthy control (HC) children (n = 35), individually matched by sex and age, was exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST-C). After the speech task and the math task of the TSST-C, children were asked to evaluate their performance. In addition, observers rated their social performance on different dimensions as well as their cognitive performance. Results showed that children with SP evaluated their performance worse than HC children but did not differ in observer-rated nervous behaviors, micro social skills and cognitive performance. Borderline significant group differences could only be found in observer-rated global impression, illustrating that children with SP may differ from HC children during social stress mainly due to being perceived as having a less positive and friendly social appearance.