Social Anxiety Research Articles

Psychotic Experiences Questionnaire. Part 2

BACKGROUND: On the basis of the concept of psychotic and psychotic-like experiences, delusions and auditory hallucinations presented in Part 1 of this article, the structure of the links between psychotic experiences and social anxiety and its components and psychological parameters is analyzed. A mediator model of the relationship between social anxiety and the phase of psychotic alienation — "experiencing external control" — is discussed. AIM: To investigate the parameters and stages of development of psychotic and psychotic-like experiences registered with the Psychotic Experiences Questionnaire in the context of analyzing the structure of relationships with psychological variables (social anxiety, metacognitive and cognitive phenomena). Тo construct a mediator model of the indirect effect of social anxiety components on the “experience of being controlled externally” mediated by thought suppression (“polar bear effect”). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sample — 122 respondents, includes non-clinical and two clinical groups — with symptoms of the affective spectrum and with symptoms of the psychotic spectrum. The author's ‘Psychotic Experiences Questionnaire’ was used to assess the severity of psychotic experiences, the scales of which represent the phases of the unfolding of the experiences. Social anxiety and its components (author's “Social Anxiety and Social Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire”), cognitive (“Cognitive Flexibility Questionnaire”, “Behavioural Self-Regulation Style — SSPM 2020” questionnaire) and metacognitive (Thought Suppression Scale, author's “Self-Focused Attention Questionnaire”) strategies were determined. RESULTS: Pearson correlation analysis showed significant ‘direct’ associations of early and moderate psychotic and psychotic-like experiences with social anxiety and its components, metacognitive (self-focused attention and thought suppression) parameters, and ‘inverse’ links with cognitive parameters (cognitive component of conscious self-regulation and cognitive flexibility). Correlations with psychological parameters become insignificant in intense psychotic experiences. Using mediator analysis, the full indirect effects of the social anxiety components influence on the enhancement of “experiencing being controlled externally” as a phase of psychotic experiences maximum intensity were measured (mediator — thought suppression). CONCLUSION: Metacognitive strategies, social anxiety, disturbed self-regulation and flexibility play an important role in the genesis and maintenance of psychotic experiences. Significant correlations of the parameters with psychotic experience are shown, but at the height of alienation the significant correlations weaken. At the height of psychotic experience in the absence of direct effects it is possible to explicate the indirect influence of the predictor — social anxiety on the experience of controllability from the outside, mediated by thought suppression. This article is a continuation of the article by Sagalakova OA, Truevtsev DV, Zhirnova OV. Psychotic Experiences Questionnaire. Part 1. Neurology Bulletin. 2024;56(1):23–36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17816/nb623959

Perceived changes in mental health and social engagement attributed to a single psychedelic experience in autistic adults: results from an online survey.

Anecdotal reports suggest that psychedelic drugs can improve psychological wellbeing and social engagement in autistic people. However, there are few contemporary studies on this topic. To examine autistic participants' experiences with psychedelic drugs and the extent to which they attributed changes in mental health and social engagement to their most 'impactful' psychedelic experience. We also explored associations between these changes and mechanistically important variables (e.g., aspects of the acute psychedelic experience and changes in 'psychological flexibility'). Self-selecting autistic participants (n = 233) with high autism quotient scores completed an online survey relating to their most impactful psychedelic experience. Questionnaires assessed the acute psychedelic experience and perceived psychedelic-induced changes in distress, social engagement and psychological flexibility, among other relevant variables. The majority of participants attributed reductions in psychological distress (82%) and social anxiety (78%) and increases in social engagement (70%) to their most 'impactful' psychedelic experience. A substantial minority (20%) also reported undesirable effects such as increases in anxiety with some describing their psychedelic experience as among the most negatively impactful experiences of their lives. The only substantial predictor of reductions in psychological distress was increased psychological flexibility. Autistic people attributed changes in mental health and social engagement to a single highly impactful psychedelic experience. The results and their implications are discussed with caution considering the use of a non-experimental design and biased sampling.

Machine learning and Bayesian network analyses identifies associations with insomnia in a national sample of 31,285 treatment-seeking college students

BackgroundA better understanding of the relationships between insomnia and anxiety, mood, eating, and alcohol-use disorders is needed given its prevalence among young adults. Supervised machine learning provides the ability to evaluate which mental disorder is most associated with heightened insomnia among U.S. college students. Combined with Bayesian network analysis, probable directional relationships between insomnia and interacting symptoms may be illuminated.MethodsThe current exploratory analyses utilized a national sample of college students across 26 U.S. colleges and universities collected during population-level screening before entering a randomized controlled trial. We used a 4-step statistical approach: (1) at the disorder level, an elastic net regularization model examined the relative importance of the association between insomnia and 7 mental disorders (major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, anorexia nervosa, and alcohol use disorder); (2) This model was evaluated within a hold-out sample. (3) at the symptom level, a completed partially directed acyclic graph (CPDAG) was computed via a Bayesian hill-climbing algorithm to estimate potential directionality among insomnia and its most associated disorder [based on SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) values)]; (4) the CPDAG was then tested for generalizability by assessing (in)equality within a hold-out sample using structural hamming distance (SHD).ResultsOf 31,285 participants, 20,597 were women (65.8%); mean (standard deviation) age was 22.96 (4.52) years. The elastic net model demonstrated clinical significance in predicting insomnia severity in the training sample [R2 = .44 (.01); RMSE = 5.00 (0.08)], with comparable performance in the hold-out sample (R2 = .33; RMSE = 5.47). SHAP values indicated that the presence of any mental disorder was associated with higher insomnia scores, with major depressive disorder as the most important disorder associated with heightened insomnia (mean |SHAP|= 3.18). The training CPDAG and hold-out CPDAG (SHD = 7) suggested depression symptoms presupposed insomnia with depressed mood, fatigue, and self-esteem as key parent nodes.ConclusionThese findings provide insights into the associations between insomnia and mental disorders among college students and warrant further investigation into the potential direction of causality between insomnia and depression.Trial registrationTrial was registered on the National Institute of Health RePORTER website (R01MH115128 || 23/08/2018).

Resting-state functional connectivity in anxiety disorders: a multicenter fMRI study.

Anxiety disorders (AD) are associated with altered connectivity in large-scale intrinsic brain networks. It remains uncertain how much these signatures overlap across different phenotypes due to a lack of well-powered cross-disorder comparisons. We used resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) to investigate differences in functional connectivity (FC) in a cross-disorder sample of AD patients and healthy controls (HC). Before treatment, 439 patients from two German multicenter clinical trials at eight different sites fulfilling a primary diagnosis of panic disorder and/or agoraphobia (PD/AG, N = 154), social anxiety disorder (SAD, N = 95), or specific phobia (SP, N = 190) and 105 HC underwent an 8 min rsfMRI assessment. We performed categorical and dimensional regions of interest (ROI)-to-ROI analyses focusing on connectivity between regions of the defensive system and prefrontal regulation areas. AD patients showed increased connectivity between the insula and the thalamus compared to controls. This was mainly driven by PD/AG patients who showed increased (insula/hippocampus/amygdala-thalamus) and decreased (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex/periaqueductal gray-anterior cingulate cortex) positive connectivity between subcortical and cortical areas. In contrast, SAD patients showed decreased negative connectivity exclusively in cortical areas (insula-orbitofrontal cortex), whereas no differences were found in SP patients. State anxiety associated with the scanner environment did not explain the FC between these regions. Only PD/AG patients showed pronounced connectivity changes along a widespread subcortical-cortical network, including the midbrain. Dimensional analyses yielded no significant results. The results highlighting categorical differences between ADs at a systems neuroscience level are discussed within the context of personalized neuroscience-informed treatments. PROTECT-AD's registration at NIMH Protocol Registration System: 01EE1402A and German Register of Clinical Studies: DRKS00008743. SpiderVR's registration at ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03208400.

Fears of positive and negative evaluation and their within-person associations with emotion regulation in adolescence: A longitudinal analysis.

Fear of positive evaluation (FPE) has recently emerged as an important aspect of social anxiety, alongside fear of negative evaluation. These evaluation fears peak during adolescence, a developmental stage that is also often accompanied by difficulties in emotion regulation, thereby increasing young individuals' vulnerability to mental disorders, such as social anxiety. We aimed to examine the longitudinal within-person associations between fears of evaluation, social anxiety, and three emotion regulation strategies (i.e., acceptance, suppression, rumination) in adolescents. Data were collected from a sample of 684 adolescents through an online survey three times over the course of 6 months and were analyzed using random intercept cross-lagged panel models. At the between-person level, FPE was linked to all three emotion regulation strategies, whereas fear of negative evaluation and social anxiety were associated with acceptance and rumination. At the within-person level, difficulties in accepting emotions predicted FPE, suppression predicted social anxiety, and social anxiety predicted rumination over time. These findings reveal complex interdependencies between emotion regulation, social anxiety, and evaluation fears, both reflecting individual differences and predicting changes within individuals, and further elucidate the developmental trajectory of social anxiety in adolescence.

Help-Seeking Behaviors and Associated Factors Among Chinese Immigrant Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence

ABSTRACT Chinese immigrants are underrepresented in research on intimate partner violence (IPV). There is a lack of quantitative research on help-seeking behaviors and patterns among Chinese immigrant women experiencing IPV. In this study, using a cross-sectional design, we examine patterns of help-seeking behaviors among Chinese immigrant survivors of IPV, as well as associated factors. Participants were recruited through the WeChat and Prolific platforms to complete an online survey. A total of 139 women who reported IPV while residing in the U.S. participated. The survey’s questions addressed five forms of informal help and eight forms of formal help, as well as reasons for not seeking help. The survey also included measures of social isolation, loneliness, preferences for the ethnicity of people at social gatherings, depression, anxiety, sociodemographic characteristics, and immigration-related factors. Latent class analysis revealed two distinct help-seeking patterns. The majority either refrained from seeking help or solely relied on family and friends, while a smaller group sought support from a wider range of sources, but still primarily relied on family and friends. Factors associated with Chinese immigrant women’s use of broad sources for support included older age; being single, separated, divorced, or widowed; U.S. citizenship or permanent residency; attending social gatherings primarily with Americans; depression symptoms; and lower loneliness levels. The study’s findings underscore the importance of interventions to promote help-seeking behaviors among Chinese immigrant survivors by expanding social networks, fostering collaborations between mainstream IPV services and Chinese community organizations to implement community outreach, offering interventions that are empowerment-based, and training bilingual and bicultural service providers.

The Association Between Social Isolation and Incident Dementia Among Older Adults: Evidence From National Health and Aging Trend Study.

Older adults are vulnerable to social isolation, making it crucial to understand its impact on dementia risk. Yet, existing evidence lacks consistency, with studies using varied measures of social isolation and overlooking potential confounders. We aim to investigate the associations between social isolation and dementia risk among older adults, hypothesizing that this association may diminish after adjusting for confounding factors. We used 2 977 community-dwelling older adults who had no dementia in 2015 from National Health and Aging Trends. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to analyze the trajectories of social isolation, depression, and anxiety from 2011 to 2015. Cox proportional hazards regression models were then employed to estimate the association between social isolation trajectories and incident dementia from 2015 to 2022, adjusting for demographic variables, depression, anxiety, self-rated health, smoking status, and cardiovascular disease-related variables. Three social isolation trajectories were identified: minimal, moderate, and high levels of social isolation. During a mean follow-up of 3.6 years, 19.0% of participants were diagnosed with dementia. When only demographics were adjusted, individuals in the moderate social isolation group were 22% less likely to develop dementia compared to those with high social isolation. This association between social isolation and incident dementia became nonsignificant after further adjustment for depression, anxiety, and health indicators. The association between social isolation and dementia risk may be mediated by factors such as depression and other health indicators.

Childhood trauma and social anxiety in adolescents: Mediating role of cardiovascular response to social stress.

Adolescents exposed to childhood trauma are at an elevated risk for social anxiety. However, the physiological mechanisms linking childhood trauma and adolescents' social anxiety remain poorly understood. This study examined whether cardiovascular reactivity to acute social stress was a mechanism underlying this association. Participants were Chinese adolescents (N = 172; Mage = 12.95). They first reported their childhood trauma and social anxiety using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale. They then participated in a social stress task, during which their cardiovascular data [heart rate (HR) and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP)] were monitored. The results showed that high levels of childhood trauma were associated with blunted HR, SBP, and DBP reactivity, which in turn were associated with high levels of social anxiety. Mediation analysis indicated that childhood trauma was indirectly associated with social anxiety via blunted cardiovascular reactivity. The findings suggest that blunted cardiovascular reactivity may serve as a physiological pathway linking childhood trauma and adolescents' social anxiety.

Participatory music engagement and social anxiety: Resilience, social self-efficacy, and social support as mediators

Studies of music-based interventions have found that engagement in participatory music has positive effects. However, taking part in music activities in everyday life may have different effects. In this study we analyzed data collected from 902 university students in Beijing, China, and examined the mediating effects of social self-efficacy, resilience, and social support in the association of participatory music engagement with social anxiety. We found that participatory music engagement was negatively associated with social anxiety, and that social self-efficacy, resilience, and social support mediated this association. This study extends understanding of the effects of participatory music engagement among university students. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

The Impact of Loneliness and Social Anxiety on Casual Social Contacts.

Introduction In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, loneliness and social isolation have become major public health crises. Loneliness has reached epidemic levels and negatively impacts both health and quality of life. "Casual contacts" is a developing line of research that may hold promise in stemming the current crisis. Casual contacts referto interactions and relationships with people who are neither family nor friends.Our objectives are to (a) document the impact of casual contacts on community-based adults (Studies 1 and 2) and (b) study the impact of loneliness (Studies 1 and 2) and social anxiety (Study 2) on responses to casual contact. Based on prior studies, we expect to find that casual contacts have a generally positive impact on mood.However, the association of both loneliness and social anxiety with hypervigilance to social threat leads to the broad hypothesis that individuals with each of these conditions would be more likely to respond negatively to casual contacts than would others without those conditions. Method This correlational research recruited convenience samples of English-speaking adults living in the United States, using the online platform Survey Monkey. There were no selection criteria beyond (a) language and location and (b) the sample beinggenerally balanced for age and gender. Partial correlation and analysis of covariance were used to examine theassociation of loneliness and social anxiety with feeling worse after casual contacts, while controlling for age, gender, household size, household income, and size of town.Because the current study examines a novel area, individual differences that affect how people experience casual contacts, we ran two studies enabling us to examine whether the results replicated. In total, we surveyed 546 community-dwelling adults about their casual contacts, 174 in Study 1 and 372 in Study 2. Data cleaning was used to minimize/eliminate meaningless and random answers resulting in a final total study sample of 393 participants: 123 in Study 1 and 270 in Study 2. Results The results indicate that casual contacts are common, with fewer than 4% having neither verbal nor electronic contact with an acquaintance weekly, and typically have a positive impact (Study 1 and Study 2). Nevertheless, a significant minority of casual contacts result in negative experiences, which is more probable among respondents who were lonely (Study 1 and Study 2) and/or had higher levels of social anxiety (Study 2). Exploratory analyses showed that both loneliness and social anxiety are linked to feeling worsefor longer periods of time after casual contacts and that positive feelings tend to dissipate more rapidly for those with higher loneliness scores (Study 2). Conclusions These results indicate that clinicians developing interventions that involve casual contacts must consider how to do so safely and effectively for those with a higher degree of loneliness and/or social anxiety.

Virtual facades: Exploring the relationship between self-presentation on Facebook and social anxiety among Egyptian Generation Z users

This study investigates the correlation between the ‘false-self’ – the persona presented to the public that may not accurately reflect one’s true identity – and social anxiety among Generation Z Facebook users in Egypt. An integrated methodology approach was used to explore the connection between Facebook usage, false self-presentation and social anxiety levels. Data were collected by administering a questionnaire targeting 420 Facebook users belonging to Egypt’s Generation Z demographic. The study findings demonstrate a strong positive correlation between higher Facebook usage intensity and false self-presentation. Furthermore, false self-presentation was found to be positively correlated with social anxiety. Significant gender differences in self-congruence on Facebook were revealed, supported by theories related to social norms and gender roles. These findings illustrate the potential influence of social media on gender identity and self-presentation, underscoring the need to take gender differences into account when studying the effects of social media on mental health. Additionally, significant differences in Facebook intensity and attachment between genders were revealed. This study adds to our understanding of the intricate relationship between social media use, self-presentation and mental health outcomes among Generation Z by providing insight into the risks associated with false self-presentation and high Facebook usage intensity.

Mental health literacy of adolescents in Bermuda, according to age, gender and race.

Mental health literacy (MHL) is an important part of the help-seeking process, yet there is a lack of knowledge about the MHL of adolescents in the Caribbean. This region is important to study as it is underrepresented in mental health research globally. The aim of this study is to explore the ability of adolescents in Bermuda to recognize depression and social phobia (social anxiety) and their beliefs about the sources of help for a peer with these mental health problems. This cross-sectional study surveyed middle and high school students aged 10-19 years in Bermuda. Online surveys conducted between November 2022 and June 2023 gathered demographic data including age, gender and race, and assessed the ability to recognize depression and social anxiety from descriptions provided in randomly assigned vignettes, and beliefs about sources of help. Across 15 middle and high schools, 2423 adolescents (out of 3593 eligible participants) completed all demographic and MHL survey questions (1139 males, 1272 females). Recognition rates for depression and social anxiety were 60% and 53%, respectively. Compared to females, males endorsed a greater variety of help sources. Reporting symptoms of depression or anxiety reduced the likelihood of endorsing multiple sources of help. MHL of adolescents in Bermuda is sub-optimal, particularly for social anxiety. Mental health promotion programs may be useful in improving recognition rates.

Reading Anxiety in Arabic University Students

Reading anxiety measures are newly available in English, but none is available in Arabic. The goals of the present study were to adapt the English Reading Anxiety in College Students (RACS) scale to Arabic-speaking college students (RACS-Arabic), evaluate its reliability and other psychometric properties in comparison to the English US sample, and assess its relation to self-assessments of reading ability and measured reading ability. A sample of 226 undergraduate university Arabic-speaking students completed measures of reading anxiety, general and social anxiety, reading self-concept, perception of reading ability, and reading skills. Results showed the brief 10-item RACS-Arabic demonstrated high reliability. Factor loadings were compared to the original RACS English US sample, suggesting reading anxiety in Arabic to be more about reading out loud in front of people and less about not understanding what is read. Results also indicated that reading anxiety was a significant predictor of reading self-concept and self-perception of reading ability after controlling for general and social anxiety, demonstrating the reading-specific nature of reading anxiety. Unlike the English US sample, which demonstrated small but significant associations between reading anxiety and reading fluency, no significant correlation was observed in this sample between RACS-Arabic and oral vowelized word reading efficiency. Future research is needed to explore the relationship between reading anxiety and different measures of Arabic reading ability.

Anime watching: is a new kind of addiction? Evaluation of psychopathologies and psychosocial factors associated with problematic anime watching among adolescents

BackgroundIn recent years, with the rapid development of technology, research on behavioral addiction concepts such as digital gaming disorders and problematic internet use has increased. As anime-watching has become widespread worldwide, it is thought that this behavior may be one of the areas of problematic technology use, especially in adolescence. However, studies evaluating problematic anime-watching behaviors within the framework of behavioral addictions are quite limited in the literature. In this study, problematic anime-watching behaviors, comorbid psychiatric disorders, and possible psychosocial factors were evaluated in 86 anime watchers aged between 12 and 18 years. Problematic anime-watching behaviors were evaluated according to the diagnostic criteria of other defined disorders related to addictive behaviors in ICD-11. A semi-structured interview tool was used to assess psychiatric comorbidities, and the IGDS9-SF adapted form for anime-watching, the Self-Efficacy Scale for Children, KIDCOPE, and the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents were used to collect other data.ResultsIt was determined that 36.8% of the 86 adolescents in our study had problematic anime-watching behavior. Compared to other adolescents, the problematic anime-watching group had significantly lower self-efficacy scores and significantly higher social anxiety and avoidant coping scores. A significant relationship was found between social anxiety disorder and watching problematic anime.ConclusionsThe present study showed that problematic watching of anime may be a variant of behavioral addiction. In conclusion, the relationship between problematic anime-watching behaviors and mental health warrants further examination.

Self-Compassion and Social Anxiety: A Scoping Review

Self-Compassion and Social Anxiety: A Scoping Review

Mental Health Problems Among Indonesian Adolescents: Findings of a Cross-Sectional Study Utilizing Validated Scales and Innovative Sampling Methods

PurposeThis study aimed to estimate the prevalence of mental health problems and identify potential risk and protective exposures for adolescents in Indonesia. MethodsAn innovative sampling approach was applied to simultaneously recruit school- and community-based adolescents aged 16–18 years old from Jakarta (urban megacity) and South Sulawesi (remote province). We used multistage cluster sampling for in-school (N = 1,337) and respondent driven sampling for out-of-school (N = 824) adolescents. Mental health was measured using two validated scales: Kessler-10 and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale-Revised. Psychiatric interviews were conducted in a subsample (N = 196) of students from Jakarta to validate the self-report scales. ResultsThe estimated population prevalence of psychological distress and depression were 24.3% (95% CI = 21.5–27.2) and 12.6% (10.5–14.4) for in-school and 23.7% (20.7–26.7) and 23.5% (20.4–26.5) for out-of-school adolescents, respectively. In participants who completed a psychiatric interview, common psychiatric morbidities were social anxiety, depression, and suicidality. Compared to in-school females, male in-school adolescents reported a lower prevalence of psychological distress (16.9% (13.1–20.7) vs. 30.4% (26.4–34.4)) and depression (10.1% (7.2–13.1) vs. 14.6 (11.4–17.8)). By contrast, for out-of-school adolescents, males reported a higher prevalence of psychological distress (25.2% (21.6–28.9) vs. 20.2% (15.1–25.3)) and depression (26.3% (22.5–30.1) vs. 16.9% (11.8–21.9)). In-school adolescents who did not seek healthcare despite a perceived need were more likely to report psychological distress and depression. DiscussionAdolescent mental health problems are highly prevalent in Indonesia, with substantial variation by gender, geography, and school enrolment. This study and its approach to sampling and measurement may serve as a model to improving mental health surveillance across other settings.

Characteristics associated with social anxiety in adults with developmental stuttering: A review.

People who stutter are at a greater risk for developing symptoms of social anxiety, with up to 22-60% of adults who stutter meeting the criteria for a clinical diagnosis. Negative attitudes and feelings about speaking and stuttering are reported to emerge as early as the preschool years and are suspected to be due to exposure to negative listener reactions, stereotyping and social isolation. Repeated negative experiences lead to feelings of fear, embarrassment and loss of control during speaking which over time, leads to the development of more severe difficulties with speaking and an overall apprehension to speak as they perceive themselves as an incompetent communicator. The present review aims to summarize risk factors, particularly temperament and environmental factors, that are reported to play a role in the emergence and maintenance of social anxiety in people who stutter. Another aim of this review is to summarize the features of social anxiety reported in adults who stutter, some of which, are similar to high socially anxious fluent speakers (e.g., avoidant strategies) while others are specific to stuttering (e.g., muscle tension). The clinical implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are also discussed.

The Benefit-Cost Balance of Chinese Adults’ Social Interaction Behaviors on Social Media: Social Capital, Privacy Concerns and Attachment Anxiety

Social media, whose core element is interactivity, has become an important tool for people to establish and maintain relationships. According to social exchange theory (SET), weighing costs and benefits in the context of online interpersonal interactions can also guide people to decide whether to make a connection with others. While there have been studies of social interaction, few have looked at specific behaviors, including sharing and responding, within the same framework. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the benefit-cost balance of social interaction behaviors on social media that involve self-disclosures and proactive interactions such as commenting, forwarding, and liking. Via an online survey of Chinese adults ( n = 2,767) and structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques, we found that social media users were at once motivated by bridging social capital and restrained by privacy concerns when making decisions regarding self-disclosure. However, users were not swayed by privacy concerns when engaging in proactive interactions; instead, they were encouraged by both bonding and bridging social capital. Moreover, the benefit-cost model was extended by investigating the moderating effect of attachment anxiety and found that the more anxious individuals were about attachment, the weaker the effects of bridging social capital and the stronger the effects of privacy concerns on their social interaction behaviors, which complemented the existing literature at the level of individual differences.

Gym Membership Versus Non-membership Does Not Moderate The Relationship Between Social Media Addiction And Anxiety.

Gym Membership Versus Non-membership Does Not Moderate The Relationship Between Social Media Addiction And Anxiety.

ELECTRONIC ASSESSMENT ANXIETY SCALE: DEVELOPMENT, VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY

The widespread availability of internet access in daily life has resulted in a greater acceptance of online assessment methods. E-assessment platforms offer various features such as randomizing questions and answers, utilizing extensive question banks, setting time limits, and managing access during online exams. Electronic assessment enables real-time monitoring, customization, and scalability of feedback, benefiting students, academic staff, and administrative personnel. However, students encounter specific challenges in the electronic assessment environments. These challenges include limited control over test settings and the isolated nature of taking exams without peers. Furthermore, the technological proficiency of both instructors and students, along with resource constraints (computers, mobile devices, internet), can impede the effective utilization of these assessment tools. Technical issues like slow internet connection or disconnections can have significant consequences, especially in online exams, posing difficulties for corrections. The main goal of this study is to develop a Likert-type scale capable of measuring anxiety related to technical issues, social isolation, and the test interface experienced in e-assessment contexts. The study consists of two separate groups: the first group comprising 359 participants and the second group consisting of 356 participants. Both groups include undergraduate and pedagogical formation certificate program students from a university in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkiye. Construct validity was assessed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Item parameters were examined using item analysis based on classical test theory. As a result of the study, a two-factor scale structure comprising 21 items measuring social and technical anxiety was developed. These two dimensions account for 59.89% of the total variance. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the entire scale was 0.93, the McDonald’s omega coefficient was 0.93, and the construct reliability was 0.99.