Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-cnmwb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T11:07:11.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social anxiety: predictors and outcomes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2016

Kathleen A Moore
Kathleen A Moore*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology
*
School of Psychology, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Hwy Burwood 3125, Australia. Email: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Social anxiety is a debilitating problem affecting many life domains, however the aetiology of this anxiety remains unclear. Aside from biological models, learning and, more recently, information transfer have been implicated in the onset of social anxiety. These last are of particular concern to those working with children or adolescents. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the role of early parental style as a casual factor in social anxiety and then to assess the impact of social anxiety on emotional wellbeing, quality of life and relation-ships, and the use of coping strategies. Ninety-five 18-19 year old first year university students (75 females, 19 males) completed the Parental Bonding Instrument (relevant to their first 16 years), the Austin Quality of Life Scale, Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships Scale - Revised, UCLA Loneliness Scale, EAS Temperament Scale, Ways of Coping Checklist-Revised, and a measure of social anxiety suitable for nonclinical samples. Childhood perceptions of reduced care and overprotection from fathers predicted social anxiety (R216 per cent) but maternal style did not. Social anxiety was related to less use of solution oriented coping; greater use of affective-based coping strategies; poorer emotional well-being, quality of relationships and quality of life; and higher levels of loneliness. The importance of the role of the family when working with young adolescents and children is discussed as is the suggestion that early information transfer from peers, siblings, and more importantly teachers are also assessed as predictors of social anxiety. While the present study revealed no association between gender and social anxiety on information transfer, it is suggested that future studies examine separate cohorts of young males and females.

Type
Theory and Research
Information
Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools , Volume 9 , Issue S1: Health, Well-being and Coping in Young People , August 1999 , pp. 47 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arbuckle, J. (1997). Amos users' guide Version 3.6. Chicago: SmallWaters Corp.Google Scholar
Baglioni, A.J., Cooper, C.L., & Hingley, P. (1990). Job stress, mental health and job satisfaction among UK senior nurses. Stress Medicine, 6, 9–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beidel, D.C., & Turner, S.M. (1998). Shy children, -phobic adults: Nature and treatment of social phobia. Washington: APA.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blagg, N., & Yule, W. (1994). School refusal. In Ollendick, T.H. & King, N.J. (Eds.), International handbook of phobic and anxiety disorders in children and adoles-cents. Issues in clinical child psychology (pp. 169–186). New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Burgoon, J.K. (1976). The Unwillingness to Communicate Scale: Development and validation. Speech Monographs, 43, 60–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buss, A.H., & Plomin, R. (1984). Temperament: Early developing personality traits. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Cheek, J.M. (1983). The Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale, Instructor's Resources. New York: Worth Publishers.Google Scholar
Cheek, J.M., & Buss, A.H. (1981). Shyness and sociability, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 330–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crozier, W.R. (1982). Explanation of shyness. Current Psychological Reviews, 2, 47–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foley, F.W., Heath, R.F., & Chabot, D.R. (1986). Shyness and defensive style. Psychological Reports, 58, 967–973.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R.S. (1980). An analysis of coping in a middle-aged community sample, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 21, 219–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gee, D.L., & Moore, K.A. (1997). Social phobia and shyness: Orthogonal or continuum?Australian Psychological Society 32nd Annual Conference, Cairns.Google Scholar
Kagan, J., Reznick, J.S., & Snidman, N. (1988). Biological bases of childhood shyness. Science, 240, 167–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kagan, J.Snidman, N., & Arcus, D.M. (1992). Initial reactions to unfamiliarity: Born to be shy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1, 171–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCroskey, J.C (1977). Oral communication apprehension: A summary of recent theory and research. Human Communication Research, 4, 78–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNaughton, N., & Andrews, G. (1990). Anxiety. Dunedin, NZ: University of Otago Press.Google Scholar
Montgomery, R.L., Haemmerlie, F.M., & Edwards, M. (1991). Social, personal, and interpersonal deficits in socially anxious people. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6, 859–872.Google Scholar
Moore, K.A. (1999). Preliminary investigation into the psychometric properties of the Austin Quality of Life Scale (AUSQUAL). Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Moore, K.A., McCabe, M.P., & Stockdale, J.E. (1998). Factor analysis of the Personnel Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships Scale (PAIR): Engagement, communication and shared friendships. Sex and Marital Therapy, 13(4), 369–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, G., Tupling, H., & Brown, L.B., (1979). A Parental Bonding Instrument. British Journal of Psychology, 52, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, B.N. (1987). Test anxious children's response to classroom instruction. In Schwarzer, R., Van der Ploeg, H.M., & Spielberger, C.D. (Eds.), Advances in test anxiety research Vol. 5. Berlin: Frie University of Berlin.Google Scholar
Pilkonis, P. (1977). The behavioral consequences of shyness. Journal of Personality, 45, 596–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, D., Peplau, L., & Cutrona, C. (1980). The revised UCLA Loneliness Scale: Concurrent and discriminant validity evidence, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 472–480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Todd, A.L., Boyce, P.M., Heath, A.C., & Martin, N.G. (1994). Shortened versions of the Interpersonal Sensitivity Measure, Parental Bonding Instrument and Intimate Bond Measure. Personality and Individual Differences, 16, 323–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vitaliano, P.P., Russo, J., Carr, J.E., Maiuro, R.D., & Becker, J. (1985). The Ways of Coping Checklist: Revision and psychometric properties. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 20, 3–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilhelm, K., & Parker, G. (1990). Reliability of the Parental Bonding Instrument and Intimate Bond Measure. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 24, 199–202.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zimbardo, P. (1977). Shyness. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Zimbardo, P. (1982). Shyness and the stresses of the human condition. In Goldberger, L. & Breznitz, S. (Eds.), Handbook of Stress: Theoretical and clinical aspects (pp. 466–481). New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Zimbardo, P. (1986). The Stanford shyness project, In Jones, W.H., Cheek, J.M. & Briggs, S.R. (Eds.), Shyness (pp. 17–25). New York: Plenum Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar