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Peer behavior toward socially anxious adolescents: Classroom observations

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Abstract

This study focused on the relation between adolescents’ social anxiety and the way they are treated by classmates. The link between class behavior during oral presentations and the social anxiety of the speakers was investigated. Social anxiety was measured both as a trait variable and as manifest in two state anxiety characteristics. A group of 55 students from Grades 8 and 9 were selected to participate in the study. Class behavior during their presentations was rated by the students themselves, their teacher, and an independent observer. Results showed that negative class behavior was related to social anxiety, particularly when behavior was rated by the independent observer. The data suggested that this negative social outcome is related to longer lasting social interactions in the classroom and not to specific state anxiety characteristics.

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

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