Abstract
Social anxiety in the peer groups is currently viewed as typical of early adolescence. This awkwardness with peers is supposedly a consequence of the of the multiple changes occuring during this period. Nevertheless, empirical evidence regarding the development of social anxiety with peers, as well as its psychological correlates, is scarce. To shed light on these issues, a total of 508 French fourth-to-ninth-graders completed questionnaires assessing their perception of social anxiety with peers. They assessed also various aspects of their self-consciousness and perceived peer acceptance, because we hypothesized that these two social cognitive dimensions were correlated — positively and negatively respectively — with social anxiety. Within each of these three general domains, several more specific variables were considered. Specifically, inward and outward self-consciousness were distinguished. Overall, a decreasing tendency with age was observed for social anxiety and inward self-consciousness, although the participants increasingly perceived thewselves to be neglected by their peers. Correlational analyses suggested that inward self-consciousness, outward self-consciousness, and perceived peer acceptance contribute independently to social anxiety.
Résumé
L’anxiété sociale entre pairs est couramment considérée comme typique de la prime adolescence. On attribue ce malaise aux multiples changements caractérisant cette période. Le processus de développement et les corrélats psychologiques de l’anxiété sociale n’ont pourtant fait l’objet que de peu d’investigations empiriques. Afin d’éclairer ces deux questions, 508 élèves français du CM1 à la troisième ont évalué par questionnaire comment ils percevaient leur anxiété sociale entre pairs. Ils ont également évalué différents aspects de leur disposition à la conscience de soi et de leur perception de leur acceptation par les pairs, car on faisait l’hypothèse que ces deux dimensions socio-cognitive seraient corrélées — positivement et négativement respectivement — à l’anxiété sociale. A l’intérieur de chacun de ces trois domaines, plusieurs variables plus spécifiques ont été définies. En particulier, on a distingué entre une conscience de soi directe et une autre passant par la formation d’une audience imaginaire. Dans l’ensemble, l’anxiété sociale et la conscience de soi directe tendent à diminuer au fil des classes, alors que les sujets perçoivent de plus en plus leurs pairs comme négligeants à leur égard. Des analyses corrélationnelles suggèrent que la conscience de soi directe, celle indirecte et la perception d’être faiblement accepté par ses pairs contribuent de façon indépendante à l’anxiété sociale.
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Mallet, P., Rodriguez-Tomé, G. Social anxiety with peers in 9- to 14-year-olds. Developmental process and relations with self-counsciousness and perceived peer acceptance. Eur J Psychol Educ 14, 387–402 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173122
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173122