Shorter communicationPeer behavior toward socially anxious adolescents: Classroom observations
Introduction
The purpose of this research was to evaluate the relationship between adolescents’ social anxiety and the social outcomes they encounter in their daily interactions with peers. The relationship was studied in a real-life situation, while the adolescents were giving an oral presentation in their own classroom. Both the trait social anxiety of the students and their anxiety-related behaviors during the presentation were taken into account as possible factors linked to negative class behavior.
In their review article on interpersonal processes in social phobia, Alden and Taylor (2004) concluded that the link between social anxiety and negative outcomes from peer interactions has been demonstrated in primary school children as well as in older children and adolescents, but at the same time they stated that only one study actually observed peer behavior. In this study of 7–14-year olds (Spence, Donovan, & Brechman-Toussaint, 1999), the socially anxious children received less positive responses from their peers during social interactions in school.
In their social interactions, socially anxious persons are very concerned about the impression they make on others and in particular about how anxious they might look (e.g., Cartwright-Hatton, Tschernitz, & Gomersall, 2005; Rapee & Lim, 1992). Their self-evaluations tend to be negative and probably with good reason because other people also rate their social performance in a rather negative way. The evidence for objective performance differences between high and low socially anxious individuals is especially clear in studies using children and adolescents (e.g., Alfano, Beidel, & Turner, 2006; Beidel, Turner, & Morris, 1999; Inderbitzen-Nolan, Anderson, & Johnson, 2007; Spence et al., 1999). In the Inderbitzen-Nolan et al. (2007) study, high socially anxious adolescents were rated as less socially skilled, less assertive, less friendly, more anxious, and more self-conscious than non-anxious controls in a conversation task with confederates and in an impromptu speech task. The self-ratings of the adolescents yielded the same results. The Beidel et al. (1999) study found evidence for differences between high and low socially anxious children in anxiety and effectiveness on a read-aloud task and role-plays. The high socially anxious group was rated as higher in state anxiety and as less effective. These children rated themselves as more anxious. Alfano et al. (2006) found that in a social interaction task, high socially anxious youth evaluated their performance as less skilled than normal controls. Independent observers rated them as more anxious and less effective. In the Spence et al. (1999) study, socially anxious children were rated by their parents and themselves as less socially competent. Behavioral observations in the classroom and the playground showed that these children interacted less with their peers and also initiated fewer interactions.
Behavioral studies in this domain generally used social interaction tasks with unfamiliar persons acting as interaction partners in a conversation or as an audience (e.g., Cartwright-Hatton et al., 2005; Inderbitzen-Nolan et al., 2007). In this way, ongoing social interaction patterns that persons have developed in their social lives could neither influence the behavior of the participants nor that of their partners in the interactions. This is clearly an advantage if one wishes to focus solely on the role of state characteristics, like overt anxiety or friendliness, as influencing other persons’ evaluations of the socially anxious. However, there are at least two reasons why it could be advantageous to also take ongoing social relationships into account. First, this approach allows for exploring the relative importance of, on the one hand, state anxiety factors like overt anxiety and safety behaviors during a certain interaction and, on the other , the more stable and continuous trait-related behaviors, in explaining the quality of persons’ social interactions. The second reason is that studying real-life interactions with peers has higher ecological validity.
The present study investigated peer behavior toward students giving oral presentations in their own classroom. In both primary and secondary schools in the Netherlands, oral presentations are part of the educational curriculum. Both the speakers’ trait social anxiety and expression of state anxiety during the presentation were examined in relation to their classmates’ behavior. The behavior of the class was rated by three different raters, the speakers themselves, their teacher, and an independent observer. The behavior of the speakers was rated by the independent observer. The first question of this study asked whether there is a relation between social anxiety and adverse treatment by classmates. On the basis of previous studies (Blöte & Westenberg, 2007; Spence et al., 1999), it was expected that students with higher social anxiety would encounter more negative treatment by their classmates. The second question was whether class behavior was linked to specific behaviors of the speaker during the presentation such as overt nervousness and (lack of) interaction with the class. These speaker behaviors are interesting variables because nervousness and safety behaviors, like avoiding contact with classmates, might explain negative responses from these classmates (Clark & Wells, 1995). Finally, the third question was whether a relation existed between social anxiety and how the presentation was graded. The grade was an important indication of students’ overall performance during the presentation. If the socially anxious performed poorly, as they themselves would think they did (Inderbitzen-Nolan et al., 2007; Spence et al., 1999), one would expect that they received lower grades for their presentations.
Section snippets
Participants
The study started with 210 students from 10 secondary school classes (pre-university level) from Grades 8 to 10. The students in these classes were mainly Caucasian and from middle-class families. In total, 10 students from different classrooms refused to participate in the study. A selection was made of four classes from the pool of 10 on the basis of two criteria. (1) The classes had the same Dutch language teacher; the reason for this criterion is that the oral presentations took place
Preliminary analyses
After calculating the internal consistency of the nine items of the class behavior rating list, one item was removed because of a low correlation with the other items (see Table 1). The internal consistency of the remaining eight items was α=.62 for the observer's ratings and α=.82 for the students’ ratings. The reliability of the teacher's ratings was clearly insufficient, at α=.34; therefore, the teacher's ratings were not used in the following analyses.
No significant gender differences were
Discussion
This study found that during oral presentations given by students in their classroom, the behavior of classmates was related to the speakers’ social anxiety. Higher socially anxious students were treated more negatively, particularly when class behavior was evaluated by an independent observer. Class behavior was not related to speakers’ overt nervousness or social interaction with classmates during their speech. Furthermore, the grade students received for their presentation was not related to
References (14)
- et al.
Interpersonal processes in social phobia
Clinical Psychology Review
(2004) - et al.
Psychopathology of childhood social phobia
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
(1999) - et al.
Social anxiety in children: Social skills deficit, or cognitive distortion?
Behaviour Research and Therapy
(2005) - et al.
Behavioral assessment of public speaking anxiety using a modified version of the social performance rating scale
Behaviour Research and Therapy
(2003) - et al.
Speech disturbances and gaze behavior during public speaking in subtypes of social phobia
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
(1997) - et al.
Subjective versus objective behavioral ratings following two analogue tasks: A comparison of socially phobic and non-anxious adolescents
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
(2007) - et al.
Psychmetric evaluation of the social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents and the social phobia and anxiety inventory for children: Construct validity and normative data
Anxiety Disorders
(2004)
Cited by (37)
Behavior when socially anxious individuals expect to be (dis)liked: The role of self-disclosure and mimicry in actual likeability
2020, Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental PsychiatryYoung people with higher social anxiety are less likely to adopt the perspective of another: Data from the Director task
2017, Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental PsychiatryCitation Excerpt :From a therapeutic perspective, it is important to differentiate between cognitions about social performance that are biased compared to those that are founded in actual skill deficit. Indeed, young people with social anxiety may have a deficit in social skills – they are more likely to be disliked, neglected, and bullied, and have fewer and poorer friendships (Bernstein, Bernat, Davis, & Layne, 2008; Blöte, Kint, & Westenberg, 2007; La Greca & Harrison, 2005; Greco & Morris, 2005; Miers, Blöte, & Westenberg, 2010; Scharfstein, Alfano, Beidel, & Wong, 2011; Spence, Donovan, & Brechman-Toussaint, 1999; Verduin & Kendall, 2008) (difficulties that appear to be specific to social anxiety rather than other anxiety disorders (Scharfstein et al., 2011a; Verduin & Kendall, 2008)). Studies using measures of self- and parent-report, as well as behavioural assessments, pinpoint problematic social skills, compared to their non-anxious peers (Alfano, Beidel, & Turner, 2008; Beidel, Turner, & Morris, 1999; Inderbitzen-Nolan, Anderson, & Johnson, 2007; Rao et al., 2007; Scharfstein et al., 2011b; Spence et al., 1999), although a few studies have not replicated this association (Cartwright-Hatton, Hodges, & Porter, 2003, Cartwright-Hatton, Tschernitz, & Gomersall, 2005; Erath, Flanagan, & Bierman, 2007).
The etiology of social anxiety disorder: An evidence-based model
2016, Behaviour Research and TherapyCitation Excerpt :There is now good evidence that negative social experiences, particularly with peers, play a role in the development and maintenance of SAD (Blote, Miers, Heyne et al., 2015). Research from Western cultures indicates that socially anxious children tend to have fewer friends, are less well-liked and accepted by peers, have more negative peer interactions, and are more likely to be passively neglected and actively rejected and victimized than non-anxious peers (Blote & Westenberg, 2007; Blote, Kint, & Westenberg, 2007; Erath, Flanagan, & Bierman, 2007; Greco & Morris, 2005; Ranta, Kaltiala-Heino, Pelkonen, & Marttunen, 2009, 2013; Verduin & Kendall, 2008). As will be discussed below, there is also convincing evidence that adverse social outcomes are a risk factor for future SAD, not just a consequence of social anxiety, and that socially anxious behavior is perceived by peers in a negative way thus supporting our earlier proposition about the importance of positive social performance.
Safety behaviors, self-focused attention and negative thinking in children with social anxiety disorder, socially anxious and non-anxious children
2012, Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental PsychiatryThe impact of particular safety behaviours on perceived likeability and authenticity during interpersonal interactions in social anxiety disorder
2023, Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy