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Cognitive content of socially anxious adolescents: Behavioral and physiological correlates across two behavioral tasks
Abstract
The relationship between social anxiety and cognitive content, or self-statements, has been researched in the psychological literature. To date, research has primarily focused on the self-statements of adults and children with social anxiety; a review of the literature is provided. The purpose of the current study was to examine the self-statements of socially anxious adolescents across two behavioral tasks. Three hundred and sixty-two adolescents were divided into three groups (socially phobic, socially anxious, and nonanxious) based on a diagnostic interview and two self-report measures of social anxiety. The relationship between self-statements and behavioral performance and self-statements and physiological arousal was investigated during the two tasks, an impromptu speech and a conversation with a similar-aged peer. Heart rate was monitored during both tasks. Following the tasks, the adolescents completed a self-statements questionnaire. Behavioral performance during the tasks was later rated by independent observers. Results generally suggest that adolescents, in general, experienced more negative self-statements during the speech task than the conversation task, and the socially phobic and socially anxious adolescents experienced more negative self-statements than the nonanxious adolescents. Self-statements often predicted behavioral performance, while self-statements did not significantly predict heart rate during the two tasks. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy
Recommended Citation
Jordan, Judith A, "Cognitive content of socially anxious adolescents: Behavioral and physiological correlates across two behavioral tasks" (2008). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3307713.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3307713