Low Social Anxiety Research Articles

Positive Self-Disclosure on Social Network Sites and Adolescents' Friendship Quality: The Mediating Role of Positive Feedback and the Moderating Role of Social Anxiety.

In the current information age, SNSs (Social Network Sites) have been popular among young adolescents, and have also become a main manner to maintain social relationships. Against this background, based on relevant evidence, the present study aimed to examine the association between positive self-disclosure on SNSs and adolescents' friendship quality, as well as the underlying mechanism-the potential mediating role of perceived positive feedback and the moderating role of social anxiety. A sample of 1713 adolescents aged 11 to 19 was recruited to participate in this study, to complete a set of scales. Results indicated that positive self-disclosure on SNSs was positively associated with adolescents' friendship quality, and positive feedback significantly mediated the association between self-disclosure positivity and friendship quality. This mediating effect, moderated by social anxiety, could significantly moderate the mediating effect of positive feedback; specifically, compared with higher social anxiety adolescents, the association between positive self-disclosure and positive feedback was stronger among individuals with lower social anxiety. These findings may expand previous studies, with several theoretical and practical implications.

Effect of Theatre and Drama Practices Course on Social Anxiety

Individuals who make up society interact and communicate with their social environment. While the healthy realization of this communication enables the individual to live in harmony with the community, in the opposite case, the individual cannot communicate with their environment and may face many problems in both professional and daily life. This situation can turn into social anxiety. In this work, which aims to analyze the impact of the “Theatre and Drama Practices” course on reducing social anxiety, experimental research design, one of the quantitative research designs, was used, and a one-group pretest-posttest model was used in the experimental design. In the work, which was implement on 45 4th-grade university students who study at Bayburt University School of Education, Department of Turkish Education autumn semester of the 2022-2023 academic year, data were collected with the 12-item Social Anxiety Scale Short Form. In the examination of the data obtained, the data were entered into the computer system and analyzed with the SPSS 18 program. Mean scores and standard deviation values of Turkish teacher candidates were calculated. To compare the data, the t-test for dependent group and t-test for independent group were used. Before the “Theatre and Drama Practices” course, Turkish teacher candidates had moderate social anxiety, and their social anxiety levels didn’t differ significantly by gender; after the “Theatre and Drama Practices” course, Turkish teacher candidates had low social anxiety, and their social anxiety levels didn’t differ significantly by gender. A statistically significant difference was obtained between Turkish teacher candidates’ pre-test and post-test scores in terms of social anxiety. It was defined that the “Theatre and Drama Practices” course effectively reduced the social anxiety levels of teacher candidates.

Social memory characteristics of non-clinical college students with social anxiety

According to the cognitive theory of social anxiety, the cognitive schema of people with social anxiety makes them easily attracted by threatening information and memory processing. Two experiments explored the social memory characteristics of college students with social anxiety. In Experiment 1, the study investigated the social memory bias of college students with social anxiety. In Experiment 2, cue word technology was used to investigate the social autobiographical memory amount and generalization degree of college students with social anxiety using cue words. The results showed that: (1) Compared with low social anxiety college students, college students with high social anxiety had a memory bias for negative social information, but did not have a negative memory bias for irrelevant social information; (2) Compared with low social anxiety college students, college students with high social anxiety had more negative social autobiographical memory; (3) Compared with low social anxiety college students, college students with high social anxiety have a higher degree of social autobiographical memory generalization. This study revealed that college students with high social anxiety had a negative memory bias toward social information, the amount of negative social autobiographical memory was larger and the degree of social autobiographical memory generalization was higher, providing new perspectives for future interventions in this population.

Social anxiety and academic performance during COVID-19 in schoolchildren.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the perception of schoolchildren whether their academic performance improved or worsened during the pandemic, analyzing their social anxiety, gender, use of masks in the classroom, and school year. The total sample was 107 primary school students (25 in the fourth, 40 in the fifth and 42 in the sixth grade), with a mean age of 10.51 years old (SD = 1). The gender were 58 girls and 49 boys, from a school in the province of La Coruña (Spain). The study was based on a quantitative methodology, and the design was cross-sectional, descriptive, observational and correlational. The social anxiety questionnaire (CASO-N24) was used to assess social anxiety, and an ad hoc self-report register was elaborated to evaluate sociodemographic variables. The results indicated that 44.8% of the schoolchildren considered that the pandemic had neither improved nor worsened their academic performance. Although 38.3% considered that high and very high social anxiety increased progressively as the school year progressed, both in boys and girls. Besides, the schoolchildren who presented very low and low social anxiety improved their grades in Physical Education, while those who presented high social anxiety worsened them. In conclusion, having a low social anxiety, lower grades before the pandemic and higher grades after, makes children perceive an improvement in their academic performance during the pandemic.

Time course of attentional bias in social anxiety: Evidence from visuocortical dynamics

Threat-related attentional bias is thought to have a causal influence on the etiology of social anxiety. However, there is uncertainty on whether attention dwells on or diverts away from threats, and the measurements typically utilized to explore attentional bias cannot continuously quantify changes in attention. Here, we used steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) as a continuous neurophysiological measure of visual attentional processing to examine the time course of attentional bias in social anxiety. Participants with high (n = 18) and low (n = 18) social anxiety passively viewed two faces flickering at 15 and 20 Hz frequency to evoke ssVEPs, and completed Attentional Control Scale. The results showed that angry faces, as compared to happy and neutral faces, elicited larger ssVEP amplitudes for the time window of 180–500 ms after facial stimuli onset only in the high socially anxious individuals, and the effect extended to the next two periods of 500–1000 ms and 1000–1500 ms. The ssVEP amplitudes differed most when individuals with high social anxiety viewed angry-neutral expression combinations. Additionally, attentional control was negatively correlated with social anxiety and threat-related attentional bias. The results suggested that individuals with social anxiety initially oriented attention toward the threat and subsequently exhibited difficulty in disengaging attention from it, possibly due to impaired attentional control.

Social anxiety profiles and academic self-attributions in secondary school students. What are we really talking about? Theoretical, methodological, and statistical

The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between academic self-attributions and subclinical social anxiety in a sample of Spanish adolescents and examine statistically significant differences in academic self-attributions among subgroups of socially anxious youth. Random cluster sampling was conducted. The final sample consisted of 717 Spanish students enrolled in Secondary Education (51% girls) aged 14 to 17 years (M = 15.68, SD = 1.16). The Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) and the Sydney Attribution Scale (SAS) were administered. Cluster analysis identified three clusters: (1) students with high social anxiety (n = 102) and high scores on fear of negative evaluation (FNE), anxiety toward strangers or new social situations (SAD-N), and anxiety in social situations in general (SAD-G); (2) students with moderate social anxiety (n = 290) and moderate scores on FNE, SAD-N, and SAD-G; and (3) students with low social anxiety (n = 325) and low scores on FNE, SAD-N, and SAD-G. Multivariate analyses (MANOVA) examined differences in the academic self-attributions across the three clusters of subclinical social anxiety, finding statistically significant differences in the six types of academic self-attributions (Wilks Lambda = .89, F(12,714) = 7.11, p < .001, η2 = .06), including success attributed to ability, success attributed to effort, success attributed to external causes, failure attributed to ability, failure attributed to effort, and failure attributed to external causes. The implications of these findings for Psychology and Education professionals are discussed.

Perceived interpersonal competence as a predictor of clinical outcomes in a randomized controlled trial for social anxiety and employment

ABSTRACT This study explored relationships among perceived interpersonal competence and demographic and work history variables in a randomized control trial for social anxiety disorder (SAD) that compared work-related group cognitive behavioral therapy plus vocational services (WCBT+VSAU) to vocational services only (VSAU-alone). Intervention effects of perceived interpersonal competence on treatment outcomes over 12 weeks were also examined. Data from 250 job seekers with SAD (59.2% Female; 40.8% Black/African American; 82.4% Non-Hispanic/non-Latino/a) were analyzed. We predicted negative relationships between perceived interpersonal competence and symptoms/impairment and that individuals with lower perceived interpersonal competence would benefit more quickly in WCBT+VSAU relative to VSAU-alone. Results indicated that perceived interpersonal competence did not vary by gender, race, ethnicity, homeless status, or employment history. There were no intervention effects of perceived interpersonal competence regarding social anxiety or overall functional impairment, but results supported negative relationships between perceived interpersonal competence and lower social anxiety and overall functional impairment in both conditions. Separately, perceived interpersonal competence moderated effects in the depression model such that there were faster declines in depression at lower perceived interpersonal competence levels in WCBT+VSAU, but not in VSAU-alone. Results indicate the value of attending to perceived interpersonal competence in interventions, which may result in mood benefits.

Type and Breadth of High School Extracurricular Activity Involvement and Postsecondary Psychosocial Well-Being among Diverse Youth.

Many youth experience declines in psychosocial well-being during the transition from high school to postsecondary. Hypothesizing that extracurricular activity involvement in high school functions as a resource factor, the current study examines type and breadth as predictors of psychosocial well-being one year postsecondary. The sample (N = 4070) consisted of students from diverse ethnic-racial and socio-economic status backgrounds (30% Latinx; 60% had a parent without a college degree; 47% cisgender female). Eleventh grade involvement in sports was linked with lower loneliness, social anxiety, and depressive symptoms, and higher self-worth, whereas special interest clubs were associated with lower social anxiety and depressive symptoms. Examining breadth, one or two activities were linked with optimal psychosocial well-being. The results suggest that sports and special interest clubs, and up to two activity domains, are associated with optimal psychosocial well-being, providing recommendations for extracurricular programming and youth involvement.

The relationship between three subtypes of safety behaviors and social anxiety: Serial mediating effects of state and trait post-event processing

The cognitive model for social anxiety disorder (SAD) highlights the role of safety behaviors and post-event processing (PEP). We identify the serial mediating effect of state and trait PEP between three types of safety behaviors (impression management, avoidance behavior, and anxiety-symptom control) and social anxiety. Given that the associations between the three subtypes of safety behaviors and two perspectives of PEP have not yet been examined, we aimed to investigate these relationships according to the level of social anxiety. A total of 487 participants participated in an online survey. Participants were classified into two groups, high and low, based on their social anxiety scores. We used Social Behavior Questionnaire to distinguish three types of safety behaviors and the State and Trait versions of the Post-Event Processing Inventory to identify two perspectives of PEP. We used descriptive statistics and an independent t-test to compare the high and low social anxiety groups. Mediation effects were examined using mediation analysis and bootstrapping with 5,000 replications. The results showed that the three safety behaviors had different effects on social anxiety via PEP. In the high social anxiety group, avoidance behavior and anxiety-symptom control predicted social anxiety positively, whereas impression management did not. However, with state PEP and trait PEP as mediators, impression management and avoidance behavior positively predicted social anxiety but not anxiety-symptom control. In the low social anxiety group, only avoidance behavior was significantly related to social anxiety, but when the state and trait PEP were mediated, the effect disappeared. These results indicated that impression management could affect social anxiety only when mediated by PEP in people with high social anxiety. A better understanding of the content and processes underpinning safety behavior and PEPs might have important implications for the prevention and treatment of social anxiety disorder.

Peer charity donation, gratitude, and self-esteem among left-behind children.

Previous research suggests that receiving a charity donation could induce gratitude but threaten self-esteem. We investigated if peer charity donations from typical children benefit or harm the mental health of their left-behind children (LBC) classmates. We recruited children at a school (i.e., intervened school) that organized peer charity donations every semester and three typical schools (i.e., non-intervened school) without such intervention in China. Participants completed the gratitude, self-esteem, depression, and social anxiety scales. A statistical toolbox, "Matchit", randomly selected 420 children aged 9-13 (220 females, 200 males, 213 LBC, 207 non-LBC); there was no significant difference in left-behind status, age, gender, or family economic status (all p> .10) between the intervened and non-intervened groups (210 per group). Structural equation model analyses revealed that gratitude was associated with higher self-esteem, lower social anxiety, and lower depression. Moreover, the intervention effect on self-esteem was significantly positive among the LBC recipients and non-LBC donors. The interaction between intervention and left-behind status was significant on gratitude and depression. Specifically, the intervention effect was not significant on gratitude or depression among the LBC but was significantly negative on gratitude and depression among the non-LBC. Peer charity donation may increase self-esteem among children (recipients or donors) via increased social connection or satisfaction of basic needs, yet decreased gratitude among the donors due to the "moral licensing effect".

Problematic internet and social network site use in young adults: The role of emotional intelligence and fear of negative evaluation

The present study contributes to the existing literature by testing a model that considers the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI), fear of negative evaluation (FNE), and problematic internet (PIU) and social network site use (PSNSU). In this study, 1067 young adults (44.6 % males, 55.4 % females) within the age bracket of 18 to 25 years completed self-administered online questionnaires. It was found that low self-esteem and high social anxiety facilitate fear of negative evaluation in social situations, thus mediating the relationship between emotional intelligence and problematic internet and social network site use. The moderation analysis confirmed that the strength of the relationship between emotional intelligence and problematic internet and social network site use is not constant. It depends on the level of fear of negative evaluation. We have confirmed that heightened social anxiety and low self-esteem result in overuse of the internet and social network site due to fear of negative evaluation from others.

The socially poor get richer, the rich get poorer: The effect of online self-disclosure on social connectedness and well-being is conditional on social anxiety and audience size

Self-disclosure taking place in computer-mediated communication (CMC) is generally associated with enhanced well-being because it evokes a greater sense of connectedness. It has been established that the magnitude of the benefits reaped from online self-disclosure is conditional on social anxiety (under the lens of the poor-get-richer vs. rich-get-richer hypotheses) or audience size. What remains to be understood is whether those with low (compared to high) social anxiety experience greater social connectedness and subjective well-being in dyadic and/or masspersonal CMC. A sample of 411 Canadian undergraduate students (aged 17–21 years old) self-reported their anxiety in social situations, online self-disclosure in dyadic and masspersonal communication, current feelings of social connectedness, and subjective well-being. Model 7 of the PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to test the indirect effect of online self-disclosure on subjective well-being through feelings of social connectedness, conditioned on values of social anxiety. The model was run separately for dyadic and masspersonal CMC. Online self-disclosure was associated with positive outcomes only for those with high social anxiety. In both contexts, online self-disclosure was associated with enhanced social connectedness and in turn more positive subjective well-being. In contrast, for those with low social anxiety, increases in self-disclosure in masspersonal CMC was associated with decreases in social connectedness and poorer well-being. The indirect effect was not significant for dyadic CMC. Overall, the findings contribute to a more informed understanding of online self-disclosure as a double-edged sword. Theoretical implications for the poor-get-richer and rich-get-richer perspectives are discussed.

The impact of a positive autism identity and autistic community solidarity on social anxiety and mental health in autistic young people.

Autism is a diagnosis given to individuals by professionals but is also increasingly seen as an identity which an individual can choose for themselves. We wanted to explore how having autism as an identity affects autistic young people. There is evidence that autistic adults have better psychological well-being when they feel more solidarity with other autistic people and feel positively about being autistic. We know that autistic teenagers often feel anxious in social situations. Having a positive autism identity might help alleviate social anxiety associated with being autistic. We wanted to find out if autistic young people who felt more solidarity with other autistic people, and had more positive feelings about autism, had better psychological well-being and less social anxiety. We asked 121 autistic people aged 15-22 years to complete some questionnaires. These questionnaires asked about the young person's autism traits, social anxiety, and psychological well-being. The questionnaires also asked how satisfied they felt to be autistic (satisfaction) and how much solidarity they felt with the autism community (solidarity). We found that autistic young people who had higher autism satisfaction had better psychological well-being and lower social anxiety. Young people who felt more solidarity with other autistic people had higher psychological well-being. There was no association between autism solidarity and social anxiety. We conclude that is important to support autistic young people to develop positive feelings about autism and to feel solidarity with other autistic people.

Adolescent social anxiety undermines adolescent-parent interbrain synchrony during emotional processing: A hyperscanning study

Social anxiety severely impacts adolescents’ social interactions with others; however, the underlying neural mechanism has not been revealed. This study examined how adolescent's social anxiety level influences the interbrain synchrony within adolescent-parent dyads during emotional processing by using electroencephalograph (EEG) hyperscanning. A sample of 25 adolescent-parent dyads completed the picture processing task. Adolescents’ ages ranged from 10 to 14 years old. The results showed that (1) at parietal areas, greater gamma interbrain synchrony was observed in the high social anxiety adolescent-parent dyads (HSAs) than the low social anxiety adolescent-parent dyads (LSAs) in the positive conditions. However, greater gamma interbrain synchrony of the picture processing task was observed in the LSAs than the HSAs in the negative conditions. (2) Compared with the neutral condition, LSAs induced greater interbrain synchronization in the negative condition than in the neutral condition at central and parietal areas. However, HSAs induced greater interbrain synchronization in the positive condition than in the negative condition at parietal areas. (3) HSAs induced greater interbrain synchronization at parietal areas than in the central areas in positive conditions. The results provide neurological evidence that the way parent and adolescent process different emotions in the same emotional episode could be affected by the adolescent's anxiety level.

Evaluating the Social Anxiety Depression Levels and Accompanying Psychosocial Problems in Children Diagnosed with Enuresis.

Introduction: This study was conducted to evaluate the accompanying psychosocial problems in enuresis as well as the social anxiety-depression levels in children diagnosed with enuresis.Methods: This descriptive study investigating depression and social anxiety levels of children diagnosed with enuresis was carried out with 167 children who were followed up for at least six months following their enuresis diagnosis. All participating children had no other physical or mental illnesses and were aged five years or older. Data were collected using three measurement tools and evaluated using descriptive, correlational analyzes.Results: In this study, 69.4% of the children diagnosed with enuresis were aged 7-12 years. 38.3% of their parents used “reward”, while 37.1% preferred “punishment” as a method for toilet training their children. The children’s depression and social anxiety mean scores were 21.48±7.29 and 54.58±8.84, respectively. A strong positive correlation was found between the children’s mean depression and social anxiety scores (r=0.677, p<0.001). The median depression scores of children were found to be statistically significantly different according to the children’s type of family, night sleep characteristics, type of enuresis, school success, and family life (p<0.05). Those with fragmented families (p=0.049), who did not sleep deeply at night (p=0.031), who slept for about 5-7 hours a day (p<0.01), and those whose school success was negatively affected by enuresis (p=0.021) and those who were exposed to negative family life (p=0.034) all obtained statistically significantly higher median depression scores.Conclusion: Children with enuresis had low depression and moderate social anxiety and their depression increased as their social anxiety increased. The children experienced psychosocial difficulties due to enuresis. When treating children with enuresis, it is necessary to consider both the affected child and their families through the adoption of a holistic approach, and also to evaluate the children both physically and psychosocially.

The effects of social anxiety on recognition memory for social threat words: An ERP study

In this study, the effect of social anxiety on item recognition memory was examined by adopting a study-test paradigm. Participants with high and low social anxiety (31 HSA vs. 30 LSA) memorized neutral target and threat target (NT vs. TT) words while threat distracters were simultaneously presented. The behavioral results did not exhibit group differences in recognition performance. The event-related potentials (ERP) results showed that the HSA and LSA participants all did not exhibit significant old/new effects for neutral targets, while only the LSA participants exhibited significant old/new effects for threat targets. For the distracters, the HSA participants did not exhibit evident old/new effects under the NT and TT conditions; while LSA participants showed a reversed LPC old/new effect for the threat distracters under the NT condition. The old/new effects for threat targets were impaired in HSA participants but presented in LSA participants. These findings suggest that social anxiety modulates the effect of recognition memory for social threat words.

How the physical appearance of companions affects females with high or low social physique anxiety: a virtual reality exercise study

Technologies such as virtual reality (VR), an immersive computer-based environment that induces a feeling of mental and physical presence, are becoming increasingly popular for promoting participation in exercise. The purpose of this study was to explore changes in motivation and other psychological states when the physique of an exercise companion was altered during a VR-based exercise task, and whether trait social physique anxiety (SPA) altered these effects. Using a mixed experimental design, female participants (N = 43) categorised as high or low in SPA participated in two counterbalanced 10-min running tasks within a VR environment where the exercise companion was either overweight or in-shape. Across both running tasks, individuals with high SPA reported higher negative affect, pressure and tension, and lower perceived competencies, than those with low SPA. Pressure and tension were also higher when exercising with an in-shape companion than with an overweight companion for all participants. In addition, participants with high SPA reported a stronger preference to exercise with an overweight companion than those with low SPA in a real exercise setting, but not in a VR setting. The findings suggest that the physique of an exercise companion and the SPA of an exerciser have important, but independent, psychosocial effects during exercise. That an in-shape physique of a virtual exercise companion was not a deterrent among those with high SPA has provided preliminary evidence that VR-based exercise may be helpful among females who worry about their appearance or feel self-conscious while exercising.

Social Commerce Intention, Social Interaction, and Social Support

A higher number of socially anxious users were found as more users joined social network sites. Since social commerce has become an important issue, this study investigated the effect of social anxiety on online users’ social commerce intention. Online social interactions are hypothesized to influence social commerce intention directly or indirectly through online social support. 427 effective samples were collected from Facebook users, and the results confirmed most of the causal effects. The study also tested the moderating effect of social anxiety on the causal effects. Of the eight relationships, social anxiety significantly moderates six of them. The relationships between online social interaction and emotional support and between online social interaction and social commerce intention are stronger for users with higher social anxiety. For users with lower social anxiety, the relationship between social support and the receiving of social commerce intention is stronger. The research findings lead to significant theoretical contributions and managerial implications.

Self-compassion and social anxiety: The mediating effect of emotion regulation strategies and the influence of depressed mood.

Self-compassion constitutes a positive way of relating towards the self that enables emotional regulation and reduces emotional distress. This research first explored differences among a sample of persons with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and groups of high socially anxious (HSA) and low socially anxious (LSA) students on self-compassion, emotion regulation, and social anxiety. We then investigated emotional regulation as a mediator of the prediction of social anxiety by self-compassion and the influence of depressed mood on those relationships. Study 1 compared a SAD group to matched groups of HSA and LSA students. Study 2 utilized the total sample (n=330 students and n=33 SAD) to test mediation. Self-compassion and emotion regulation were predictors of social anxiety and depression a covariate. In Study 1, the SAD group did not differ from the HSA group on most aspects of self-compassion and emotional regulation but was higher on depression. Both were lower on most measures and higher on depression than the LSA group. In Study 2, higher self-compassion predicted lower social interaction anxiety, and emotional regulation strategies mediated this effect, regardless of depression. However, for social performance anxiety, controlling for depression removed mediation. Refraining from uncompassionate responses was directly connected to social anxiety, whereas compassionate responses influenced social anxiety via emotional regulation. Results affirm the ameliorative role of self-compassion on social anxiety and emotion regulation strategies as mechanisms of that influence. However, self-compassion's influence was affected by depression and type of social anxiety. Also, refraining from uncompassionate self-responding appears to be of prime importance in predicting social anxiety, whereas compassionate self-responding influences social anxiety via emotion regulation.

Bias and sensitivity in numerosity perception of negative emotions among individuals with high social anxiety

The cognitive model of social anxiety suggests an association between social anxiety and cognitive bias toward negative social information. This study investigated the numerosity perception of emotional faces among individuals with high social anxiety. Seventy-five college students completed self-reported questionnaires—assessing social anxiety symptoms—and a numerosity comparison experiment. In each trial of the experiment, participants were presented with a group of 16 emotional faces, varying in the number of faces expressing positive and negative emotions. They were asked to judge which emotion—positive or negative—was more numerous in the crowd. Bias and sensitivity in numerosity perception of emotions were estimated by fitting a psychometric function to participants’ responses. Individuals with low social anxiety showed a bias toward positive faces (t(17) = 2.44, p = 0.026), while those with high social anxiety did not (t(17) = 1.87, p = 0.079). Correlation analyses indicated that social anxiety was negatively associated with the parameters of the function (mean for bias and standard deviation for sensitivity; r = − 0.34, p = 0.003 for mean; r = − 0.23, p = 0.047 for standard deviation). Thus, our results suggest that socially anxious individuals lack the bias toward positive emotion and are more sensitive to negative emotion than nonanxious individuals in perceiving the numerosity of facial expressions.