Abstract
Introduction: Social anxiety is an important factor in peoples’ mental health. Good mental health while studying in university makes students able to deal effectively with numerous stressors that they experience. The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the social anxiety of nursing students in grades one to four of medical universities in Tehran. Methods: In this analytic cross-sectional study, 400 students from universities of medical sciences in Tehran were recruited by stratified sampling with proportional allocation. Data were collected during the first semester in 2010. Students completed a two-part questionnaire including the Liebowitz social anxiety questionnaire and a demographic information form. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics methods and an analytical test by SPSS statistical software. Results: There was no statistically significant difference in the total scores of social anxiety of first- to fourth-year students. The mean score of the avoidance of social interaction dimension in fourth-year students was significantly lower than in first year students (p<0.05). Conclusion: In regard to the relationship between social anxiety and interpersonal communication as an associated part of nursing care, decrease of social anxiety of students could play an important role in their mental health. According to the results of this study, it seems that the placement of students in the nursing education system does not produce any changes in their social anxiety.
Highlights
Social anxiety is an important factor in peoples’ mental health
Results of this study show that the most participants were from Shahid Beheshti nursing and midwifery school (38%), followed by Iran (33%) and Tehran (29%)
Comparison of mean scores shows that the social anxiety for students of the nursing and midwifery college of Iran is higher than the ones in Shahid Beheshti and Tehran universities of medical sciences
Summary
Social anxiety is an important factor in peoples’ mental health. The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the social anxiety of nursing students in grades one to four of medical universities in Tehran. Methods: In this analytic cross-sectional study, 400 students from universities of medical sciences in Tehran were recruited by stratified sampling with proportional allocation. According to the results of this study, it seems that the placement of students in the nursing education system does not produce any changes in their social anxiety. It is clear that the ability to have interpersonal relationships is inseparable from an effective care process.[1] Having very low levels of social anxiety is one factor that demonstrates psychological health and is a requisite for interpersonal communication that can affect the nurse’s thinking, feeling and performance in providing care services. Social anxiety at a young age significantly interferes with the shaping of coping skills, and if it is not detected and tracked, can cause many problems in the long-term personality and social performance of an individual.[5,6,7] More than half of the people with social anxiety experience average or serious disability in performing their roles, 12%
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