Social Anxiety, Observed Performance, and Perceived Social Competencies in Late-Adolescent Friendships

10 COPYRIGHT 2014 BY PSI CHI, THE INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY IN PSYCHOLOGY (VOL. 19, NO. 1/ISSN 2164-8204) *Faculty mentor Social anxiety, discernible by overwhelming worry and self-consciousness in social situations, may reduce quality of life and impair the ability to fulfill daily living responsibilities, achieve educational goals, operate in the workplace, and function in both novel and everyday social situations (Stein & Kean, 2000). Even individuals with subthreshold forms of social anxiety may experience many of these functional impairments (Dell’Osso et al., 2003). Recent estimates rank social anxiety as the second most common psychiatric disorder, with a 12-month prevalence of 6.8% (Kessler, Chiu, Demler, & Walters, 2005) and a lifetime prevalence of 12.1% (Kessler, Berglund et al., 2005). Social anxiety proves to be both a serious and common issue, especially because few community members seek treatment and are thus left unaccounted in these statistics (Stein, Torgrud, & Walker, 2000). The severity of social anxiety is further underscored by its early typical age of onset, in early to middle adolescence (Mannuzza, Fyer, Liebowitz, & Klein, 1990). Of the estimated 17 million U.S. adults who suffer from social anxiety, 75% of them developed social anxiety by the age of 15, and 90% of them by the age of 23 (Kessler, Berglund et al., 2005). Adolescence is a particularly vulnerable time for social anxiety due to increases in social demands and heightened fears of negative social evaluations (Westenberg, Gullone, Bokhorst, Heyne, & King, 2007). For the first time, most adolescents begin to spend more time with peers than with their parents (Crosnoe, 2000). To cope with their anxiety, socially anxious adolescents may withdraw from social interactions, thus limiting their social contact at a time when close friendships are of increasing importance to development (Kingery, Erdley, Marshall, Whitaker, & Reuter, 2010). ABSTRACT. The functioning of socially anxious college students in friendships is surprisingly unexplored, given the prevalence and severity of psychopathology as well as the importance of close social relationships at this developmental stage. The current study sought to examine the perceived social competencies of socially anxious late adolescents and their observable behavior in conversation with friends. A sample of 54 undergraduate students completed the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A; La Greca & Lopez, 1998) and the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (ICQ; Buhrmester, Furman, Wittenberg, & Reis, 1988). In addition, each was videotaped in a 10 min conversation with a friend, and coders rated each interaction using the Social Performance Rating Scale (SPRS; Fydrich, Chambless, Perry, Buergener, & Beazley, 1998). General social anxiety (Total SAS-A) scores were significantly negatively correlated with perceived general interpersonal competencies (r = -.51, p < .001), comfort (r = -.27, p = .05), and length (r = -.34, p = .01), such that those with higher social anxiety reported lower competencies in social situations and displayed less comfort and either very short or very long talking turns. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. Social Anxiety, Observed Performance, and Perceived Social Competencies in Late-Adolescent Friendships