Socially Avoidant Research Articles

The paradox of social avoidance and the yearning for understanding: Elevated interbrain synchrony among socially avoidant individuals during expression of negative emotions

Social avoidance refers to the tendency to be alone and non-participating to social interactions, which is considered to hamper health interpersonal relationship. However, the neural underpinnings of social and emotional interactions among social avoidant individuals have not been fully studied. In the present study, we used EEG hyperscanning technology to investigate the brain activity and its synchronization of 25 socially avoidant dyads and 28 comparison dyads during an emotional communication task. The emotional communication task consisted of the emotional processing stage and emotional interaction stage. Event-related potentials (ERPs) of the senders during the emotional processing stage and the interbrain synchrony (IBS) of the dyads during the emotional interaction stage were analyzed. Results showed that (1) socially avoidant group showed higher beta, theta and gamma IBS in the negative condition than in the positive and neutral condition; (2) in positive condition, the N1 and LPP amplitudes during the emotional processing stage of socially avoidant individuals were negatively correlated with the IBS within dyads during the emotional communication stage. The findings suggest that the dysfunctional emotional interaction of social avoidant individuals may be attributed to the negative impact of emotional stimuli processing during emotional communication.

How Socially Avoidant Emerging Adults Process Social Feedback during Human-to-Human Interaction after Social Rejection: An Event-Related Potential Study.

Social avoidance refers to active non-participation in social activities, which is detrimental to healthy interpersonal interaction for emerging adults. Social rejection is a kind of negative social evaluation from others making people feel social pain. However, how socially avoidant emerging adults process social feedback information after experiencing social rejection has received less attention. The current study aimed to explore the differences in social interaction feedback processing after social rejection between a socially avoidant group (n = 16) and a comparison group (n = 16) in a human-to-human interaction context. Computer game tasks with two types of interaction (cooperation and competition) were used to record the event-related potentials when receiving social interaction feedback in two conditions (social rejection and control condition). The results showed that (1) the socially avoidant group had lower reward positivity amplitudes than the comparison group when receiving social feedback; (2) the socially avoidant group presented larger P300 amplitudes in the social rejection condition than in the control condition, but the comparison group did not; and (3) social rejection evoked more negative N1 amplitudes in the socially avoidant and comparison groups. The findings suggest that socially avoidant emerging adults may have flaws in reward sensitivity during interpersonal interaction, and they might also exert more attentional and emotional resources to social feedback after social rejection.

Motivations for Social Withdrawal, Mental Health, and Well-Being in Emerging Adulthood: A Person-Oriented Approach.

Emerging adults seek solitude because of different underlying motivational and emotional processes. The current short-term longitudinal study aimed to: (1) identify subgroups of socially withdrawn emerging adults characterized by different motivations for solitude (shyness, unsociability, social avoidance) and affect (positive, negative); and (2) compare these subgroups in terms of indices of internalizing difficulties and life-satisfaction. Participants were N = 348 university students (Mage = 21.85 years, SD = 3.84) from Italy, who completed online questionnaires at two-time points separated by three months. Results from a latent profile analysis (LPA) suggested three distinct subgroups characterized by different social withdrawal motivations (i.e., shy, unsociable, and socially avoidant), as well as a non-withdrawn subgroup (characterized by low social withdrawal motivations, low negative affect, and high positive affect). Among the results, the socially avoidant subgroup reported the highest levels of social anxiety, whereas the avoidant and shy subgroups reported the highest loneliness and lowest life satisfaction. The unsociable subgroup appeared to be the most well-adjusted subgroup of socially withdrawn emerging adults and reported similar levels of life satisfaction as the non-withdrawn subgroup. Our findings confirmed the heterogeneity of emerging adults' experiences of solitude, with different motivations for social withdrawal appearing to confer a differential risk for maladjustment.

Chinese adolescents’ attitudes and beliefs about shy, unsociable, and socially avoidant peers

ABSTRACTPeers play an important role in socially withdrawn adolescents’ adjustment. Using a dyadic peer‐rating approach, this study examined adolescents’ attitudes and beliefs about real‐world, rather than hypothetical, subtypes of socially withdrawn peers. Data were drawn from 274 adolescents (Mage = 13.23 years, SD = .68; 52% boys) from rural China. Adolescents rated each classmate's withdrawal motivation (shyness, unsociability, and social avoidance) and attitudes and beliefs about each classmate, including affiliative preference, social acceptance, prosocial orientation, teacher liking, negative impact, and learning problems. Results indicated that adolescents had pervasive negative perceptions of socially avoidant peers on all the outcomes except for teacher liking, and occasionally negative perceptions of shy peers, including low social acceptance and more learning problems. In contrast, adolescents did not perceive unsociable peers differently compared to non‐withdrawn peers. Gender differences were found only for social avoidance with avoidant girls occasionally eliciting more negative perceptions than avoidant boys. These findings uncovered the complexity of young adolescents’ perceptions of socially withdrawn peers in rural China and highlight the need for more efforts to support the healthy development of socially avoidant adolescents.

Social avoidance and social adjustment in Chinese preschool migrant children: the moderating role of teacher-child relationships.

This study aimed to explore the moderating role of teacher-child relationships in the relations between social avoidance and social adjustment (i.e., prosocial behavior, peer exclusion, and anxious-fearful behavior) in Chinese migrant preschoolers. Participants were 148 migrant children aged 4-6 years (82 boys, Mage = 62.32, SD = 6.67) attending kindergartens in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Mothers reported children's social avoidance, and teachers rated teacher-child relationships and children's social adjustment. Results indicated that social avoidance was positively related to peer exclusion and negatively related to prosocial behavior. Teacher-child relationships moderated those associations. Specifically, teacher-child closeness buffered the relationship between social avoidance and peer exclusion, whereas teacher-child conflict exacerbated the relations between social avoidance and peer exclusion and anxious-fearful behavior. The current finding informs us of the importance of improving teacher-child closeness and reducing teacher-child conflict to buffer the negative adjustment among socially avoidant young children who migrated from rural-to-urban China. The findings also highlight the importance of considering the meaning and implication of social avoidance for migrant preschoolers in Chinese culture.

Links between social avoidance and frontal alpha asymmetry during processing emotional facial stimuli: An exploratory study

Individuals who are socially avoidant actively remove themselves from opportunities for social interaction and have a strong desire for solitude. Although social avoidance is associated with a host of adjustment difficulties, its neural substrates remain under-explored. To address this gap, we conducted an exploratory study to compare electroencephalography (EEG) frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) scores during processing emotional facial stimuli in socially avoidant and non-withdrawn comparison individuals. From an original sample of N = 384 undergraduate students, 25 avoidant and 27 comparison individuals were identified. For this subset of participants, EEG modulations and self-reported experience ratings during a picture processing task were assessed. Among the results, the socially avoidant group’s ratings of positive stimuli were significantly lower than the non-withdrawn comparison group. The socially avoidant group also had significantly lower FAA scores in response to positive stimuli than the comparison group. Further, asymmetry scores of the comparison group in the positive conditions were higher than in the negative and neutral conditions. However, there were no significant differences between these three conditions in the socially avoidant group. Our results suggest that socially avoidant individuals may eschew interpersonal relationships because of a relatively greater right hemisphere cortical activity, which may contribute to a withdrawal motivation when confronted with negative emotional stimuli in social contexts.

Social Avoidance and Social Adjustment in Chinese Preschool Migrant Children: The Moderating Role of Household Chaos and Gender.

The present study explored the moderating role of household chaos and gender in the relation between social avoidance and social adjustment among Chinese preschool migrant children. Participants were 148 children (82 boys, Mage = 62.63 months, SD = 0.05) from two kindergartens, Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Multi-source assessments included: (1) mother ratings of children's social avoidance; (2) mother ratings of families' household chaos; (3) teacher ratings of children's prosocial behavior, peer exclusion, interpersonal skills, and internalizing problems. Results showed that social avoidance significantly predicted peer exclusion among Chinese migrant preschoolers. Moreover, household chaos moderated the relationship between social avoidance and social adjustment. Specifically, at higher levels of household chaos, social avoidance was negatively associated with interpersonal skills. In contrast, social avoidance was not associated with interpersonal skills at a lower level of household chaos. In addition, social avoidance was positively associated with peer exclusion among boys but not girls. The current findings inform us of the importance of reducing household chaos to buffer the negative adjustment among socially avoidant young children who migrated from rural to urban China. The findings also highlight the need to pay particular attention to migrant socially avoidant boys' development in early childhood and the importance of considering the meaning and implication of social avoidance for migrant preschoolers in Chinese culture.

Characterizing the behavioral and neuroendocrine features of susceptibility and resilience to social stress

Evaluating and coping with stressful social events as they unfold is a critical strategy in overcoming them without long-lasting detrimental effects. Individuals display a wide range of responses to stress, which can manifest in a variety of outcomes for the brain as well as subsequent behavior. Chronic Social Defeat Stress (CSDS) in mice has been widely used to model individual variation following a social stressor. Following a course of repeated intermittent psychological and physical stress, mice diverge into separate populations of social reactivity: resilient (socially interactive) and susceptible (socially avoidant) animals. A rich body of work reveals distinct neurobiological and behavioral consequences of this experience that map onto the resilient and susceptible groups. However, the range of factors that emerge over the course of defeat have not been fully described. Therefore, in the current study, we focused on characterizing behavioral, physiological, and neuroendocrine profiles of mice in three separate phases: before, during, and following CSDS. We found that following CSDS, traditional read-outs of anxiety-like and depression-like behaviors do not map on to the resilient and susceptible groups. By contrast, behavioral coping strategies used during the initial social stress encounter better predict which mice will eventually become resilient or susceptible. In particular, mice that will emerge as susceptible display greater escape behavior on Day 1 of social defeat than those that will emerge as resilient, indicating early differences in coping mechanisms used between the two groups. We further show that the social avoidance phenotype in susceptible mice is specific to the aggressor strain and does not generalize to conspecifics or other strains, indicating that there may be features of threat discrimination that are specific to the susceptible mice. Our findings suggest that there are costs and benefits to both the resilient and susceptible outcomes, reflected in their ability to cope and adapt to the social stressor.

Any time and place? Digital emotional support for digital natives.

Digital natives (i.e., those who have grown up in the digital age) are likely to receive emotional support through digital means, such as texting and video calling. However, virtually all studies assessing the benefits of emotional support have focused on in-person support; the relative efficacy of digital support remains unclear. This study assessed a sample of young adults' negative emotions, digital and in-person support for those emotions, and success in regulating them 3 times per day for 14 days (N = 164; 6,530 collective measurement occasions). Participants' social surroundings at the time of each negative emotion and trait levels of social avoidance were also considered. Digital support was expected to be received more often and perceived as more effective for regulating negative emotions when participants were alone and higher in social avoidance. However, with the exception of those higher in social avoidance receiving less digital (and in-person) support, digital support was received and perceived as effective regardless of these factors, and its perceived effectiveness was on par with that of in-person support. For digital natives, digital support may be just as effective as the "real thing" and its benefits may not be restricted to isolated or socially avoidant users. Findings are discussed in relation to the emotional consequences and social constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic. If transcending the time and space limitations of in-person support with digital support is the new norm, the good news is that it seems to be working. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Structure and function differences in the prelimbic cortex to basolateral amygdala circuit mediate trait vulnerability in a novel model of acute social defeat stress in male mice.

Stressful life events are ubiquitous and well-known to negatively impact mental health. However, in both humans and animal models, there is large individual variability in how individuals respond to stress, with some but not all experiencing long-term adverse consequences. While there is growing understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of the stress response, much less is known about how neurocircuits shaped by lifetime experiences are activated during an initial stressor and contribute to this selective vulnerability versus resilience. We developed a model of acute social defeat stress (ASDS) that allows classification of male mice into "susceptible" (socially avoidant) versus "resilient" (expressing control-level social approach) one hour after exposure to six minutes of social stress. Using circuit tracing and high-resolution confocal imaging, we explored differences in activation and dendritic spine density and morphology in the prelimbic cortex to basolateral amygdala (PL→BLA) circuit in resilient versus susceptible mice. Susceptible mice had greater PL→BLA recruitment during ASDS and activated PL→BLA neurons from susceptible mice had more and larger mushroom spines compared to resilient mice. We hypothesized identified structure/function differences indicate an overactive PL→BLA response in susceptible mice and used an intersectional chemogenetic approach to inhibit the PL→BLA circuit during or prior to ASDS. We found in both cases that this blocked ASDS-induced social avoidance. Overall, we show PL→BLA structure/function differences mediate divergent behavioral responses to ASDS in male mice. These results support PL→BLA circuit overactivity during stress as a biomarker of trait vulnerability and potential target for prevention of stress-induced psychopathology.

Withdrawn and Acting out?: Early Adolescents' Social Avoidance and Externalizing Problems.

Relative to other motivations of social withdrawal (i.e., shyness, unsociability), social avoidance is understudied. Furthermore, the relation between social avoidance and externalizing problems seldom has been investigated despite reasons to expect an association. We examined the association between social avoidance and externalizing problems using a sample of early adolescents in the United States using parents' reports (N = 294; 54.1% boys; M age = 12.43 years). Supporting our hypotheses, structural equationmodels indicated that social avoidance positively predicted concurrent externalizing problems, controlling for shyness, unsociability, and internalizing problems (including depression and anxiety). Findings highlight that socially avoidant adolescents' behaviors may include avoiding others as well as acting out. Longitudinal work is needed to examine the potential bidirectional relations between social avoidance and externalizing problems.

Social Avoidance and Social Adjustment: The Moderating Role of Emotion Regulation and Emotion Lability/Negativity Among Chinese Preschool Children.

The present study explored the role of emotion regulation and emotion lability/negativity as a moderator in the relation between child social avoidance and social adjustment (i.e., interpersonal skills, asocial behavior, peer exclusion) in Chinese culture. Participants were N = 194 children (102 boys, 92 girls, Mage = 70.82 months, SD = 5.40) recruited from nine classrooms in two public kindergartens in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Multi-source assessments were employed with mothers rating children’s social avoidance and teachers rating children’s emotion regulation, emotion lability/negativity and social adjustment outcomes. The results indicated that the relations between social avoidance and social adjustment difficulties were more negative among children lower in emotion regulation, but not significant for children with higher emotion regulation. In contrast, the relations between social avoidance and social adjustment difficulties were more positive among children higher in emotion lability/negativity, but not significant for children with lower emotion lability/negativity. This study informs us about how emotion regulation and emotion lability/negativity are jointly associated with socially avoidant children’s development. As well, the findings highlight the importance of considering the meaning and implication of social avoidance in Chinese culture.

Transacting brains: testing an actor-partner model of frontal EEG activity in mother-infant dyads.

Studies have long observed the bidirectional nature of mother-infant relationships. While behavioral studies have shown that mothers high in social avoidance tendencies can influence the development of these traits in their offspring, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon, and the role that the infants play, are not well understood. Here we acquired frontal electroencephalogram asymmetry (FA) data simultaneously in 40 mother-infant dyads (Mage mother = 31.6 years; Mage infant = 9 months). Using an actor-partner interdependence model, we examined whether mother (or infant) resting-state FA predicted infant (or mother) FA during two subsequent emotion-eliciting conditions (happy and fear). Maternal social approach versus avoidance traits were assessed as moderators to examine the impact of maternal characteristics on these mother-infant FA relations. In dyads led by mothers with high social avoidance/low social approach characteristics, maternal resting-state FA predicted infant FA during both emotion-eliciting conditions. We did not observe any effects of infant FA on mothers. Therefore, we speculate that individual differences in FA patterns might be a putative brain mechanism through which socially avoidant mothers transfer affective/behavioral information to their infants.

Young children's perceptions and beliefs about hypothetical shy, unsociable, and socially avoidant peers at school

AbstractThe aim of this study was to explore young children's perceptions, beliefs, and anticipated outcomes about different types of social withdrawal (shyness, unsociability, social avoidance). Participants were N = 212 children (n = 110 boys) aged 2.55–6.37 years (M = 4.86, SD = 0.89) recruited from three preschools and kindergartens in Italy. Children were interviewed individually and asked about hypothetical peers displaying different types of social withdrawal (i.e., shy, unsociable, socially avoidant) and for comparison purposes, aggressive and socially competent behaviors were also assessed. Among the three vignettes depicting types of withdrawn children, children rated the hypothetical shy peer as having the highest social motivations, the unsociable peer as receiving the least sympathy from others, and the avoidant peer as being the least intelligent and least liked by the teacher. In addition, girls reported wanting to play more with the shy peer than boys, and kindergarteners reported a higher affiliative preference for all subtypes of socially withdrawn peers than preschoolers. These findings suggest that Italian young children have a quite sophisticated ability to differentiate among the different social motivations and emotions that may underlie social withdrawal.

Infant Social Avoidance Predicts Autism but Not Anxiety in Fragile X Syndrome.

Objective: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and anxiety are three of the most common childhood psychiatric disorders. Early trajectories of social avoidance have been linked with these psychiatric disorders in previous studies, but it remains unclear how social avoidance differentially predicts comorbid disorders in a high-risk genetic subgroup. Here, we delineate the association between trajectories of social avoidance from infancy and subsequent ASD, ADHD, and anxiety outcomes at preschool in children with fragile X syndrome (FXS), a well-characterized single-gene disorder highly associated with social avoidance as well as elevated rates of ASD, ADHD, and anxiety.Method: Males with FXS (n = 78) aged 4–62 months participated in a longitudinal study resulting in 201 assessments. The Social Avoidance Scale (SAS) documented socially avoidant behaviors from infancy in three domains—physical movement, facial expression, and eye contact during both the first minute and the last hour of an interaction. ASD, ADHD, and anxiety symptom outcomes at preschool were measured via parent-report questionnaires.Results: Increased social avoidance across infancy and preschool predicted elevated ASD symptom severity but reduced ADHD and anxiety symptom severity in males with FXS.Conclusion: ASD, ADHD, and anxiety symptoms relate inconsistently to social avoidance behaviors, providing new insight toward the debate of independence or overlap among these disorders in FXS and other disorders (i.e., ASD). The results suggest that the nuanced profile of the developmental and temporal aspects of social avoidance may inform more the accuracy of differential diagnoses of comorbid psychiatric disorders in FXS.

Relationship between BMI, overweight preoccupation, dysfunctional attitude and social avoidance

Adolescents generally have egocentrism. They always believe that they are the centre of attraction everywhere. This leads to their worries regarding their body weight and shape. This paper explores different correlates of body image in adolescents. The data was collected from a total of 397 adolescents. On the basis of BMI, this sample was then divided into three groups: underweight, normal weight and overweight. Tools used to study these variables included Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, Dysfunctional Attitude Scale and Social Avoidance Scale. After collecting data one way ANOVA and correlation was computed. Results revealed that there were significant differences between the groups on social avoidance and dysfunctional attitudes. Underweight people are more socially avoidant in comparison to overweight and normal weight people. Underweight people also had low scores on Dysfunctional attitude (social approval, avoidance and dependency) in comparison to normal weight people. Overweight preoccupation is positively correlated to social avoidance and negatively related to dysfunctional attitudes social approval. BMI is negatively related to social avoidance and positively related with Dysfunctional attitude (dependency, avoidance, social approval). Social avoidance is negatively related with dysfunctional attitudes.

Drinking to cope with depression mediates the relationship between social avoidance and alcohol problems: A 3-wave, 18-month longitudinal study

Undergraduates with high social anxiety have increased alcohol problems, despite lower or equivalent alcohol use levels. Drinking motives mediate the cross-sectional relationship between social anxiety and alcohol problems, with coping and conformity motives being the most commonly observed mediators. Our study extended prior research by using a longitudinal design, examining coping with anxiety motives (CAM) and coping with depression motives (CDM) separately using path analysis, simultaneously considering a variety of drinking motives in the model, and focusing on a particularly severe form of social anxiety – namely, social avoidance. We collected data from 219 undergraduates (72.6% women, mean age of 20.59years) over three waves spaced six months apart. Results indicated CDM mediated the prospective relationship between social avoidance and alcohol problems. Findings suggest socially avoidant students' escalations in CDM explain their increased alcohol problems over time. Future research should examine involvement of depression and social isolation in contributing to this pathway to alcohol problems.

Left brain cortical activity modulates stress effects on social behavior.

When subjected to stress, some individuals develop maladaptive symptoms whereas others retain normal behavior. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is known to control these adaptive responses to stress. Here, we show that mPFC neurons in the left hemisphere control stress effects on social behavior. Mice made socially avoidant by the stress of chronic social defeats showed depressed neural activity in the left mPFC. Photoactivation of these neurons reversed social avoidance and restored social activity. Despite social defeats, resilient mice with normal sociability showed normal firing rates in the left mPFC; however, photoinhibition of these neurons induced social avoidance. The same photomodulation administered to the right mPFC caused no significant effects. These results explain how stressed individuals develop maladaptive behaviors through left cortical depression, as reported in mood and anxiety disorders.

Sugarcoated isolation: evidence that social avoidance is linked to higher basal glucose levels and higher consumption of glucose.

Objective: The human brain adjusts its level of effort in coping with various life stressors as a partial function of perceived access to social resources. We examined whether people who avoid social ties maintain a higher fasting basal level of glucose in their bloodstream and consume more sugar-rich food, reflecting strategies to draw more on personal resources when threatened. Methods: In Study 1 (N = 60), we obtained fasting blood glucose and adult attachment orientations data. In Study 2 (N = 285), we collected measures of fasting blood glucose and adult attachment orientations from older adults of mixed gender, using a measure of attachment style different from Study 1. In Study 3 (N = 108), we examined the link between trait-like attachment avoidance, manipulation of an asocial state, and consumption of sugar-rich food. In Study 4 (N = 115), we examined whether manipulating the social network will moderate the effect of attachment avoidance on consumption of sugar-rich food. Results: In Study 1, fasting blood glucose levels corresponded with higher attachment avoidance scores after statistically adjusting for time of assessment and interpersonal anxiety. For Study 2, fasting blood glucose continued to correspond with higher adult attachment avoidance even after statistically adjusting for interpersonal anxiety, stress indices, age, gender, social support and body mass. In Study 3, people high in attachment avoidance consume more sugar-rich food, especially when reminded of asocial tendencies. Study 4 indicated that after facing a stressful task in the presence of others, avoidant people gather more sugar-rich food than more socially oriented people. Conclusion: Results are consistent with the suggestion that socially avoidant individuals upwardly adjust their basal glucose levels and consume more glucose-rich food with the expectation of increased personal effort because of limited access to social resources. Further investigation of this link is warranted.

Children's judgements of social withdrawal behaviours.

Ding etal. (Brit. J. Dev. Psychol., 2015; 33, 159-173) demonstrated that Chinese children discriminate between the three subtypes of social withdrawal: Shyness, unsociability, and social avoidance. This commentary on the Ding etal.'s paper highlights the need to further explore the following: (1) children's understanding of the implications of being shy, unsociable, or socially avoidant, including assessing these which we know are associated with outcomes for socially withdrawn children; (2) what additional subtypes might exist naturally within the Chinese culture; and (3) consider the implications of social withdrawal on children's developing social skills.