Socially anxious adolescents' perception of treatment by classmates

This study addressed the question if socially anxious adolescents have a negatively biased perception of the way they are treated by their peers. A total of 998 high school students from Grades 8-10 were categorized as socially low, middle, or high anxious on the basis of their SAS-A score. The perceived behavior of classmates was measured using three lists that described class behaviors during oral presentations of students, one list was concerned with the behaviors directed towards the student him/herself and the other two with behaviors directed towards a hypothetical high and low socially anxious peer, respectively. The results indicated that high socially anxious students felt negatively treated by their peers and that the other students too perceived that socially anxious classmates were treated more negatively. This suggests that the perception of the high socially anxious students is not distorted but based on the actual treatment they receive from their classmates.     

Threat-related automatic associations in socially anxious adolescents

Threat-related automatic associations are assumed to play an important role in the development and maintenance of social anxiety. We tested whether threat-related automatic associations are already evident in high socially anxious adolescents, by comparing a group of adolescents (age 12–15) with subclinical levels of social anxiety (n = 170) to a group of low socially anxious adolescents (n = 193). We used a single-target implicit association test to measure threat-related automatic associations to social cues. Results showed that indeed in high socially anxious adolescents social cues automatically elicited relatively strong threat-related associations. Supporting the relevance of differentiating between automatic and more explicit measures, both automatic and explicit associations were independently associated with adolescents’ level of self-reported social anxiety. The present pattern of findings is not only consistent with the view that automatic and more deliberate threat-related associations are both involved in the etiology of social-anxiety symptoms, but also suggest that both types of associations are proper targets for early intervention programs.     

Negative self-evaluations and the relation to performance level in socially anxious children and adolescents

The current study investigated whether negatively biased self-evaluations of nervousness and social skills are related to how well an individual actually performs, that is performance level. Sixty-eight high socially anxious and 68 control participants (age range 9–17 years) gave a 5 min speech in front of a pre-recorded audience of same age peers and a teacher. Participants' evaluations immediately after the task were measured on a number of performance dimensions. Three independent observers also evaluated recordings of the speech performances. Participants were further divided into good and bad performers based on their actual performance level as judged by the observers. Self-evaluations of the high socially anxious participants were negatively biased for nervous appearance regardless of how well they actually performed. In contrast, a negative bias for social skills only occurred in the high anxious participants with a good performance. The social skill evaluations of the poor performers appear warranted. Taking actual performance level into account may help to clarify the exact nature of a negative bias in socially anxious youth and has clear implications for the choice of treatment approach.     

Peer influence and adolescent nonsuicidal self-injury: A theoretical review of mechanisms and moderators

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is an increasingly prevalent health risk behavior among adolescents and represents a significant public health concern. Although researchers have identified numerous antecedents or risk factors that precede engagement in NSSI behaviors, few studies have examined the role of peer influence processes. Yet, recent research suggests that adolescents may be more likely to engage in NSSI when close friends or other peers engage in similar behaviors. The following paper reviews past research on peer influence effects, including potential mechanisms and moderating variables. Methodological considerations for future research on peer influence and NSSI are discussed.     

Social Anxiety and Peer Relations in Early Adolescence: Behavioral and Cognitive Factors

This study investigated factors associated with social anxiety during early adolescence using multiple informants, including self and peer perspectives, teacher ratings, and direct observations. Negative social performance expectations, maladaptive coping strategies, and social skill deficits were examined as correlates of social anxiety and mediators linking social anxiety with poor peer relations. Participants were 84 middle school students (47 girls, 37 boys) over-sampled for elevated social anxiety. Analyses revealed correlations linking social anxiety with decreased peer acceptance and increased peer victimization. Path analysis indicated that negative social performance expectations and social withdrawal-disengagement accounted for the association between social anxiety and decreased peer acceptance. Social anxiety, self-directed coping strategies, and social withdrawal-disengagement were each directly linked with increased peer victimization for boys. The results replicate findings based on clinical samples, extend understanding of cognitive, social, and behavioral factors associated with social anxiety in middle school, and provide new information regarding gender differences in the correlates of social anxiety.     

Variability of attention bias in socially anxious adolescents: differences in fixation duration toward adult and adolescent face stimuli

Prior research on attention bias in anxious youth, often utilising a visual dot probe task, has yielded inconsistent findings, which may be due to how bias is assessed and/or variability in the phenomenon. The present study utilises eye gaze tracking to assess attention bias in socially anxious adolescents, and explores several methodological and within-subject factors that may contribute to variability in attention bias. Attention bias to threat was measured in forty-two treatment-seeking adolescents (age 12–16 years) diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder. Bias scores toward emotional stimuli (vigilant attention) and bias scores away from emotional stimuli (avoidant attention) were explored. Bias scores changed between vigilance and avoidance within individuals and over the course of stimulus presentation. These differences were not associated with participant characteristics nor with self-reported social anxiety symptoms. However, clinician rated severity of social anxiety, explained a significant proportion of variance in the bias scores for adult, but not the adolescent, stimuli. Variability in attention bias among socially anxious adolescents is common and varies as a function of stimulus duration and type. Results may inform stimulus selection for future research.     

Theory of mind ability in high socially anxious individuals

Background/Objectives: Research has demonstrated an association between social anxiety and impaired Theory of Mind (ToM). We assess whether ToM deficits occur even at a subclinical level of social anxiety and whether group differences in ToM performance are consistent with interpretation bias. We also explore potential reasons as to why socially anxious individuals may perform differently on ToM tasks.

Methods/Design: Undergraduate participants high (HSA; n?=?78) and low (LSA; n?=?35) in social anxiety completed a task of ToM decoding, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (MIE), a task of ToM reasoning, the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC), and a post-task questionnaire about their experience completing the MASC.

Results: HSAs performed marginally worse than LSAs on the MIE on neutrally valenced trials, and their pattern of errors may be consistent with a negative interpretation bias. HSAs and LSAs did not differ overall in performance on the MASC, though HSAs reported experiencing more confusion and distress than LSAs during the task, and this distress was associated with more MASC errors for HSA participants only. These results provide insight into the nature of ToM ability in socially anxious individuals and highlight important avenues for future research.     

Impact of rumination versus distraction on anxiety and maladaptive self-beliefs in socially anxious individuals

A large body of experimental evidence has demonstrated the adverse effects of rumination on depressive mood and cognitions. In contrast, while prominent models of social phobia (Clark & Wells, 1995; Rapee & Heimberg, 1997) have proposed rumination as a key maintaining factor, the effects of rumination in social anxiety have not been extensively explored. In a sample of (N = 93) undergraduates, this study investigated the impact of rumination versus distraction following a social-evaluative task on anxiety and another key component of social phobia: maladaptive self-beliefs. Relative to distraction, rumination maintained anxiety in both high and low socially anxious individuals, and maintained unconditional beliefs in high socially anxious individuals. The results support models of social phobia and also suggest important theoretical extensions. Implications for the treatment of social anxiety are discussed.     

Peer rejection, negative peer treatment, and school adjustment: Self-concept and classroom engagement as mediating processes

Data gathered from a short term longitudinal study within fifth grade classrooms (n = 378) were used to evaluate two process-oriented models linking peer rejection and negative peer treatment to children's self-concept, school engagement and adjustment. Both structural models linked peer rejection, victimization, and exclusion to children's self-concept, classroom engagement, and change in achievement (fall of fifth grade to the spring). The model evaluations indicated that peer rejection predicted both exclusion and victimization and that these forms of peer treatment, in turn, predicted academic self-competence. Academic self-competence, however, only partially mediated linkages to achievement change. Parallel (i.e. direct) linkages from exclusion and victimization to both academic self-competence and engagement were required for adequate model fit, as were direct links from academic self-concept and engagement to achievement change. An alternative model representing the hypothesis that academic self-concept fully mediated the relationships between the forms of negative peer treatment and children's engagement and achievement did not fit the data well.     

Peer Perceptions and Liking of Children with Anxiety Disorders

Examined three aspects of childhood anxiety and peer liking: (1) whether or not children can detect anxiety in age-mates, (2) the degree to which peer-reported anxiety, self-reported anxiety, and presence of anxiety disorders are associated with peer liking, and (3) whether or not self-reported anxiety and presence of anxiety disorders are associated with peer liking after controlling for peer-reported anxiety. Peer raters (9.5–12.5 years) rated videotaped speech samples of target children with anxiety disorders (AD; 9.5–13 years) and target children without anxiety disorders (NAD; 9.5–13 years). Peer-rated anxiety was positively correlated with target children’s self-reported anxiety and was higher among children with AD and children with social phobia (SP). Peer liking was inversely related to peer-reported anxiety and was lower for target children with SP. Target children with SP were liked less regardless of how anxious peers perceived them to be. Peer rater and target child demographics did not moderate the relationship between peer-rated anxiety and peer liking.     

Facilitating a benign interpretation bias in a high socially anxious population

Previous research has shown that high socially anxious individuals lack the benign interpretation bias present in people without social anxiety. The tendency of high socially anxious people to generate more negative interpretations may lead to anticipated anxiety about future social situations. If so, developing a more benign interpretation bias could lead to a reduction in this anxiety. The current study showed that a benign interpretation bias could be facilitated (or 'trained') in a high socially anxious population. Participants in the benign training groups had repeated practice in accessing benign (positive or non-negative) interpretations of potentially threatening social scenarios. Participants in the control condition were presented with the same social scenarios but without their outcomes being specified. In a later recognition task, participants who received benign interpretation training generated more benign, and less negative, interpretations of new ambiguous social situations compared to the control group. Participants who received benign training also predicted that they would be significantly less anxious in a future social situation than those in the control group. Possible implications of the findings for therapeutic interventions in social phobia are discussed.     

Impact of anticipatory processing versus distraction on multiple indices of anxiety in socially anxious individuals

In models of social phobia, anticipatory processing before a social-evaluative event is a key maintaining factor for the disorder. This study investigated the impact of anticipatory processing versus distraction before a social-evaluative task on affective (self-reported anxiety), psychophysiological (skin conductance), cognitive (self-reported maladaptive self-beliefs) and behavioural (in-situation performance) responses of participants. High and low socially anxious undergraduates were randomly allocated to either an anticipatory processing or distraction condition, and then completed an impromptu speech task. Relative to distraction, anticipatory processing increased self-reported anxiety in all participants, and increased skin conductance and the strength of conditional and high standard beliefs in the high (but not low) socially anxious participants. Unconditional beliefs were not affected. For high socially anxious individuals, anticipatory processing was also indirectly associated with poorer speech performance by increasing self-reported anxiety. Anticipatory processing appears to have multiple adverse effects in socially anxious individuals.     

When the heat is on: romantic partner responses influence distress in socially anxious women

This study provided a preliminary test of whether socially anxious women and their partners would show more negative social support behavior, especially among those with low relationship satisfaction, and whether this would increase the distress of the socially anxious women. Women with (n=22) and without (n=23) heightened social anxiety were observed interacting with their partners under a social-evaluative threat and support behaviors were coded. Unexpectedly, no differences were found between socially and non-socially anxious women and their partners. Although relationship satisfaction influenced this process, it was the more satisfied women who showed more negative behavior. Additionally, the more positive behaviors the partner exhibited, the greater was the distress reported by socially anxious women, particularly among women whose partners reported high relationship satisfaction. Implications for how these findings might expand theories on interpersonal processes in social anxiety are discussed.     

Affective primes suppress attention bias to threat in socially anxious individuals

Anxious individuals show an attention bias towards threatening information. However, under conditions of sustained environmental threat this otherwise-present attention bias disappears. It remains unclear whether this suppression of attention bias can be caused by a transient activation of the fear system. In the present experiment, high socially anxious and low socially anxious individuals (HSA group, n=12; LSA group, n=12) performed a modified dot-probe task in which they were shown either a neutral or socially threatening prime word prior to each trial. EEG was collected and ERP components to the prime and faces displays were computed. HSA individuals showed an attention bias to threat after a neutral prime, but no attention bias after a threatening prime, demonstrating that suppression of attention bias can occur after a transient activation of the fear system. LSA individuals showed an opposite pattern: no evidence of a bias to threat with neutral primes but induction of an attention bias to threat following threatening primes. ERP results suggested differential processing of the prime and faces displays by HSA and LSA individuals. However, no group by prime interaction was found for any of ERP components.     

Differentiating between memory and interpretation biases in socially anxious and nonanxious individuals

Although individual cognitive biases toward threat in social anxiety are well established, few studies have examined the manner in which cognitive biases work in conjunction. In the present study, socially anxious ( n = 54 ) and nonanxious ( n = 58 ) individuals read 10 passages consisting of positive social or evaluative, negative social or evaluative, and neutral content and completed two cognitive tasks assessing memory of factual details and interpretation immediately and after 48 h. Socially anxious and nonanxious individuals did not differ in their memory for details presented in the passages. However, they made less positive and more negative interpretations of details included in the passages, particularly in positive passages that were self-relevant and particularly in positive passages after the delay. After including depression, state anxiety, and trait anxiety as covariates, biased interpretation of positive passages after the time delay remained significant, but biased interpretation of the self-relevant, positive passages did not. It is concluded that socially anxious individuals are characterized by accurate memory of threatening, factual material, but that they impose a biased interpretation upon that material, especially after some time has passed.     

Letting go of yesterday: Effect of distraction on post-event processing and anticipatory anxiety in a socially anxious sample

According to cognitive models, post-event processing (PEP) is a key factor in the maintenance of social anxiety. Given that decreasing PEP can be challenging for socially anxious individuals, it is important to identify potentially useful strategies. Although distraction may help to decrease PEP, the findings have been equivocal. The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether a brief distraction period immediately following a speech would lead to less PEP the next day. The secondary aim was to examine the effect of distraction following an initial speech on anticipatory anxiety for a second speech, via reductions in PEP. Participants (N = 77 undergraduates with elevated social anxiety; 67.53% female) delivered a speech and were randomly assigned to a distraction, rumination, or control condition. The following day, participants reported levels of PEP in relation to the first speech, as well as anxiety regarding a second, upcoming speech. As expected, those in the distraction condition reported less PEP than those in the rumination and control conditions. Additionally, distraction following the first speech was indirectly related to anticipatory anxiety for the second speech, via PEP. Distraction may represent a potentially useful strategy for reducing PEP and other maladaptive processes that may maintain social anxiety.     

Failure to capitalize on sharing good news with romantic partners: Exploring positivity deficits of socially anxious people with self-reports,partner-reports,and behavioral observations

Extending prior work on social anxiety and positivity deficits, we examined whether individual differences in social anxiety alter the ability to share and respond to the good news of romantic partners (i.e., capitalization support) and how this influences romantic relationship satisfaction and commitment. In this study of 174 heterosexual couples (average age of 21.5 with 58.3% identifying as Caucasian), greater social anxiety was associated with the provision and receipt of less supportive responses to shared positive events as measured by trait questionnaires, partner reports, and behavioral observations in the laboratory. In longitudinal analyses, individuals in romantic relationships with socially anxious partners who experienced inadequate capitalization support were more likely to terminate their relationship and report a decline in relationship quality six months later. As evidence of construct specificity, social anxiety effects were independent of depressive symptoms. Taken together, social anxiety influenced a person's ability to receive and provide support for shared positive events; these deficits had adverse romantic consequences. Researchers and clinicians may better understand social anxiety by exploring a wider range of interpersonal contexts and positive constructs. The addition of capitalization support to the social anxiety literature offers new insights into interpersonal approaches and treatments.     

Memory and interpretation of visual representations of threat in socially anxious and nonanxious individuals

The present study was designed to replicate and extend results reported by Brendle and Wenzel (Behav. Res. Ther. 42 (2004) 155), who found that socially anxious individuals accurately recalled threat-relevant information but subsequently imposed a biased interpretation upon that same material, using more ecologically valid stimuli. Socially anxious (n=37) and nonanxious (n=47) individuals viewed two positive, two negative, and two neutral video vignettes and completed two cognitive tasks assessing memory and interpretation of factual details immediately and after 48 h. Similar to the results reported by Brendle and Wenzel (2004), socially anxious and nonanxious individuals did not differ in their memory for details that had been presented in the vignettes. However, socially anxious individuals made more negative interpretations of details included in the vignettes than nonanxious individuals, although unlike Brendle and Wenzel (2004), they did not demonstrate the tendency to make less positive interpretations. It is concluded that socially anxious individuals are characterized by interpretation biases when presented with threat-relevant information, and there is no evidence to suggest that they are characterized by memory biases for threat-relevant information.     

Health Status and Peer Relationships in Early Adolescence: The Role of Peer Contact, Self-esteem, and Social Anxiety

We examined associations between children’s health status and the quality of their peer relationships, as well as factors that may account for individual variation in the quality of chronically ill and healthy children’s peer relationships. Our sample included 268 children (138 boys; 130 girls) with 149 European-Americans and 119 African-Americans. There were 91 children with a chronic illness; 35 with asthma, 26 with diabetes, and 30 with obesity. Chronically ill children were characterized by teachers as displaying less prosocial behavior, less overt aggression, and less relational aggression with peers than healthy children. Chronically ill children reported lower levels of peer contact and higher levels of social anxiety than healthy children. Among chronically ill children those with high self-esteem were more prosocial and less aggressive than those with low self-esteem. Our findings suggest that chronically ill children are at risk for peer relationship difficulties, but that self-esteem may serve as a protective factor against poor peer relationships for some chronically ill children.     

Communication and social skills in socially anxious and nonanxious individuals in the context of romantic relationships

This study examined differences between socially anxious and nonanxious individuals' ability to use effective communication skills and social skills in the context of romantic relationships. Socially anxious (n = 13) and nonanxious (n = 14) individuals and their romantic partners were videotaped while participating in 10-minute neutral, negative, and pleasant conversations. Regardless of the type of conversation in which they were involved, socially anxious individuals demonstrated impairment in 10 of the 11 social skill variables assessed. In negative conversations, socially anxious individuals displayed more "very negative" behaviors than nonanxious individuals, and across all conversations they displayed fewer "positive" behaviors than nonanxious individuals. Partners of socially anxious and nonanxious individuals did not differ in their communication quality. The results suggest that social anxiety is associated with deficits in relationship maintenance behavior and call for the completion of a larger study examining the interpersonal consequences of social anxiety.