Longitudinal effects of emotion regulation on social anxiety and affect among young adults

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Koninika Mukherjee ◽  
Dilwar Hussain
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Significant Life ◽  
High Social Anxiety

Purpose Due to ongoing significant life changes during the transition into higher education, social anxiety can be problematic, especially for college students. It has adverse effects on various aspects of one’s life, including one’s feelings and emotions. The study investigated the interplay between social anxiety and emotions and its impact on affect. The aim of this study is to examine the role of difficulties in emotion regulation in the relationship between social anxiety and change in affect. Design/methodology/approach This is a longitudinal study. Data was collected with self-report instruments at two time points with a gap of four months. Participants were Indian undergraduate students from a technical institute. Findings The result revealed that high social anxiety in tandem with difficulties engaging in goal-directed behavior significantly impacts changes in positive affect. However, this effect was significant only in the presence of depression. Research limitations/implications This study highlights the harmful impact of comorbid issues such as depression in socially anxious individuals. The present study might have implications for educators and clinicians working with college students. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the only study to test the proposed research model in a sample of Indian college students. The use of a moderated moderation analysis with the three regulation strategies and depression also adds to the uniqueness of this study.

Intrusive social images in individuals with high and low social anxiety: a multi-method analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 594-610
Author(s):  
Andrea R. Ashbaugh ◽  
Keera N. Fishman ◽  
Stephanie A. Houle-Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Social Image ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural ◽  
Social Interaction Anxiety Scale ◽  
Social Images ◽  
High Social Anxiety ◽  
Interaction Anxiety ◽  
Emotion Memory

AbstractBackground:Models of social anxiety suggest that intrusive images/memories are common in social anxiety and contribute to the maintenance of social anxiety.Aims:We examined the context and phenomenological features of intrusive social images using quantitative and qualitative measures across various levels of social anxiety.Method:Undergraduate students (n = 191) completed measures of social anxiety (i.e. Social Interaction Anxiety Scale and Social Phobia Scale) and wrote a description of an intrusive social image. Individuals who reported an intrusive social image (n = 77) rated the frequency, interference and phenomenological (e.g. vividness, emotional intensity) characteristics of the image. A content analysis of the intrusive image narratives was completed by independent raters.Results:High social anxiety (HSA) increased the likelihood and frequency of experiencing intrusive images, and to some extent the interference caused by these images. However, the characteristics of these images with regard to their content and quality were similar across levels of social anxiety. Among participants who provided narratives, HSA individuals (n = 34) did not differ from low socially anxious (LSA) individuals (n = 28) in themes that reflect concerns about their own thoughts, actions and behaviours. However, HSA individuals reported greater concerns about how other individuals would react, and their intrusive images were often from an observer perspective when compared with LSA individuals.Conclusions:These results are interpreted in relation to cognitive models of emotion, memory and cognitive behavioural models of social anxiety.

scholarly journals Predicting Social Anxiety From Global Positioning System Traces of College Students: Feasibility Study

10.2196/10101 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. e10101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Boukhechba ◽  
Philip Chow ◽  
Karl Fua ◽  
Bethany A Teachman ◽  
Laura E Barnes
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Global Positioning System ◽  
Prediction Method ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Positioning System ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Global Positioning ◽  
Anxiety Levels

Background Social anxiety is highly prevalent among college students. Current methodologies for detecting symptoms are based on client self-report in traditional clinical settings. Self-report is subject to recall bias, while visiting a clinic requires a high level of motivation. Assessment methods that use passively collected data hold promise for detecting social anxiety symptoms and supplementing self-report measures. Continuously collected location data may provide a fine-grained and ecologically valid way to assess social anxiety in situ. Objective The objective of our study was to examine the feasibility of leveraging noninvasive mobile sensing technology to passively assess college students’ social anxiety levels. Specifically, we explored the different relationships between mobility and social anxiety to build a predictive model that assessed social anxiety from passively generated Global Positioning System (GPS) data. Methods We recruited 228 undergraduate participants from a Southeast American university. Social anxiety symptoms were assessed using self-report instruments at a baseline laboratory session. An app installed on participants’ personal mobile phones passively sensed data from the GPS sensor for 2 weeks. The proposed framework supports longitudinal, dynamic tracking of college students to evaluate the relationship between their social anxiety and movement patterns in the college campus environment. We first extracted the following mobility features: (1) cumulative staying time at each different location, (2) the distribution of visits over time, (3) the entropy of locations, and (4) the frequency of transitions between locations. Next, we studied the correlation between these features and participants’ social anxiety scores to enhance the understanding of how students’ social anxiety levels are associated with their mobility. Finally, we used a neural network-based prediction method to predict social anxiety symptoms from the extracted daily mobility features. Results Several mobility features correlated with social anxiety levels. Location entropy was negatively associated with social anxiety (during weekdays, r=−0.67; and during weekends, r=−0.51). More (vs less) socially anxious students were found to avoid public areas and engage in less leisure activities during evenings and weekends, choosing instead to spend more time at home after school (4 pm-12 am). Our prediction method based on extracted mobility features from GPS trajectories successfully classified participants as high or low socially anxious with an accuracy of 85% and predicted their social anxiety score (on a scale of 0-80) with a root-mean-square error of 7.06. Conclusions Results indicate that extracting and analyzing mobility features may help to reveal how social anxiety symptoms manifest in the daily lives of college students. Given the ubiquity of mobile phones in our society, understanding how to leverage passively sensed data has strong potential to address the growing needs for mental health monitoring and treatment.

scholarly journals Predicting Social Anxiety From Global Positioning System Traces of College Students: Feasibility Study (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Boukhechba ◽  
Philip Chow ◽  
Karl Fua ◽  
Bethany A Teachman ◽  
Laura E Barnes
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Global Positioning System ◽  
Prediction Method ◽  
Anxiety Symptoms ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Positioning System ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Global Positioning ◽  
Anxiety Levels

BACKGROUND Social anxiety is highly prevalent among college students. Current methodologies for detecting symptoms are based on client self-report in traditional clinical settings. Self-report is subject to recall bias, while visiting a clinic requires a high level of motivation. Assessment methods that use passively collected data hold promise for detecting social anxiety symptoms and supplementing self-report measures. Continuously collected location data may provide a fine-grained and ecologically valid way to assess social anxiety in situ. OBJECTIVE The objective of our study was to examine the feasibility of leveraging noninvasive mobile sensing technology to passively assess college students’ social anxiety levels. Specifically, we explored the different relationships between mobility and social anxiety to build a predictive model that assessed social anxiety from passively generated Global Positioning System (GPS) data. METHODS We recruited 228 undergraduate participants from a Southeast American university. Social anxiety symptoms were assessed using self-report instruments at a baseline laboratory session. An app installed on participants’ personal mobile phones passively sensed data from the GPS sensor for 2 weeks. The proposed framework supports longitudinal, dynamic tracking of college students to evaluate the relationship between their social anxiety and movement patterns in the college campus environment. We first extracted the following mobility features: (1) cumulative staying time at each different location, (2) the distribution of visits over time, (3) the entropy of locations, and (4) the frequency of transitions between locations. Next, we studied the correlation between these features and participants’ social anxiety scores to enhance the understanding of how students’ social anxiety levels are associated with their mobility. Finally, we used a neural network-based prediction method to predict social anxiety symptoms from the extracted daily mobility features. RESULTS Several mobility features correlated with social anxiety levels. Location entropy was negatively associated with social anxiety (during weekdays, r=−0.67; and during weekends, r=−0.51). More (vs less) socially anxious students were found to avoid public areas and engage in less leisure activities during evenings and weekends, choosing instead to spend more time at home after school (4 pm-12 am). Our prediction method based on extracted mobility features from GPS trajectories successfully classified participants as high or low socially anxious with an accuracy of 85% and predicted their social anxiety score (on a scale of 0-80) with a root-mean-square error of 7.06. CONCLUSIONS Results indicate that extracting and analyzing mobility features may help to reveal how social anxiety symptoms manifest in the daily lives of college students. Given the ubiquity of mobile phones in our society, understanding how to leverage passively sensed data has strong potential to address the growing needs for mental health monitoring and treatment.

Tendency to Conform: A New Measure and its Relationship to Psychological Reactance

2005 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 591-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald E. Goldsmith ◽  
Ronald A. Clark ◽  
Barbara A. Lafferty
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Psychological Reactance ◽  
Self Report ◽  
The Relationship

This study assessed the relationship between two important constructs in social psychology, conformity and psychological reactance, which are suggested to be negatively related, i.e., a person higher in the tendency to conform will score lower on psychological reactance and vice versa. The two constructs were measured by multi-item self-report scales, the Therapeutic Reactance Scale of Dowd, et al. and a new tendency to conform scale constructed for this study. Data from a survey of 423 undergraduate students were used to test the hypothesis that scores on the scales were negatively correlated. The hypothesized relationship was positively supported by a significant but only moderately sized correlation ( r = -.32, p < .001).

scholarly journals Screening Social Anxiety in Adolescents Through the Eyes of Their Carers

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis-Joaquin Garcia-Lopez ◽  
Lourdes Espinosa-Fernandez ◽  
Jose-Antonio Muela-Martinez ◽  
Jose Antonio Piqueras
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Study Objective ◽  
Validity Data ◽  
Efficacious Treatment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Strength Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Different Cultures

Despite the availability of efficacious treatment and screening protocols, social anxiety disorder (SAD) in adolescents is considerably under-detected and undertreated. Our main study objective was to examine a brief, valid, and reliable social anxiety measure already tested to serve as self-report child measure but administered via Internet aimed at listening to the ability of his or her parent to identify social anxiety symptomatology in his or her child. This parent version could be used as a complementary measure to avoid his or her overestimation of children of social anxiety symptomatology using traditional self-reported measures. We examined the psychometric properties of brief and valid social anxiety measure in their parent format and administered via the Internet. The sample included 179 parents/legal guardians of adolescents (67% girls) with a clinical diagnosis of SAD (mean age: 14.27; SD = 1.33). Findings revealed good factor structure, internal consistency, and construct validity. Data support a single, strength-based factor on the SPAIB-P, being structure largely invariant across age and gender. The limited number of adolescents with a performance-only specifier prevented examining the utility of scale to screen for this recently established specifier. It is crucial to evaluate if these results generalize to different cultures and community samples. The findings suggest that the SPAIB-P evidences performance comparable with child-reported measure. Parents can be reliable reports of the social anxiety symptomatology of the adolescent. The SPAIB-P may be useful for identifying clinically disturbed socially anxious adolescents.

Too Anxious to Talk: Social Anxiety, Academic Communication, and Students’ Experiences in Higher Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 106342662110600
Author(s):  
Kristen A. Archbell ◽  
Robert J. Coplan
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Student Outcomes ◽  
Emotional Functioning ◽  
Physical Symptoms ◽  
Gender Effects ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
Academic Communication

Social anxiety is related to a host of negative student outcomes in the educational context, including physical symptoms of anxiety, reduced cognitive functioning, and poor academic performance. Despite the prevalence of social anxiety, little is known about mechanisms that may underlie associations between social anxiety and outcomes in the context of higher education. Therefore, the goal of this study was to evaluate a conceptual model linking social anxiety, communication with peers and instructors, students’ experiences (i.e., engagement, connectedness, and satisfaction), and indices of socio-emotional functioning at university. Participants were N = 1,073 undergraduate students ( Mage = 20.3 years, SD = 3.49) who completed a series of self-report measures. Among the results, social anxiety was negatively related to communication with instructors, socio-emotional functioning, and student experiences, and academic communication accounted for significant variance in the links between social anxiety and student experiences. In addition, there was at least some evidence that student experiences partially mediated the association between social anxiety and socio-emotional functioning. Gender effects suggest that social anxiety is related to less communication with instructors, lower engagement and satisfaction, and poorer socio-emotional functioning among females compared with males. Results are situated within current literature examining social anxiety in education. The discussion provides concrete suggestions for educational practitioners to increase support for students who experience social anxiety.

Empathic abilities and their mediators in Tunisian psychiatry trainees

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 317-330
Author(s):  
Bochra Nourhene Saguem ◽  
Zeineb Bouzaâbia ◽  
Amel Braham ◽  
Selma Ben Nasr
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Empathic Concern ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Reactivity Index ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Personal Distress ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to assess empathy dimensions in Tunisian psychiatry trainees and to evaluate their relationship with relevant professional and extra-professional factors. Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire survey was administered to the psychiatry trainees affiliated in the four faculties of medicine of Tunisia (n = 120). It comprised, in addition to sociodemographic and professional variables, the interpersonal reactivity index, a multidimensional instrument that evaluates perspective taking, empathic concern, personal distress and fantasy. Other self-report measures were used to assess emotion regulation, social support and self-efficacy. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Findings The response rate was 71%. Descriptive statistics showed that personal distress’ scores were lower than the other empathy dimensions’ scores. Perspective taking scores were negatively correlated with emotion regulation difficulties. Personal distress scores were positively correlated with emotion regulation difficulties. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that being an only child significantly contributed to perspective taking and having an extra-professional activity significantly contributed to less personal distress. Perceived stress, social support and having a master’s degree were significant predictors for empathic concern. Self-efficacy was a significant predictor of perspective taking, with emotion regulation difficulties mediating this relationship. Practical implications Interventions dedicated to improve psychiatry trainees’ empathy should focus not only on clinical practice and medical education but also on emotional support and recovery activities. Originality/value A unique feature of this study is the investigation of the potential impacts of emotion regulation difficulties and perceived self-efficacy on empathic abilities of psychiatry trainees.

Fear of terrorism and its correlates in young men and women from the United States and South Korea

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-32
Author(s):  
Fang Hong ◽  
Yijing Lin ◽  
Mikyung Jang ◽  
Amanda Tarullo ◽  
Majed Ashy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Moral Disengagement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negative Outcomes ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
The Usa

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine associations between fear of terrorism and several predictors (gender and nationality) and outcomes (moral disengagement, authoritarianism, aggression and social anxiety) in the USA and South Korean young adults. Of particular interest were the potential moderating and mediating roles of moral disengagement between fear of terrorism and the other outcomes. Design/methodology/approach Samples of 251 college students from the USA and 211 college students from South Korea completed survey packets including measures of fear of terrorism, moral disengagement, authoritarianism, aggression and social anxiety. Findings US participants expressed greater concern about a terrorist threat to their country, while South Koreans worried more about terrorist threats to their family or themselves. Females in both countries reported greater fear of terrorism and social anxiety. In both countries, fear of terrorism was associated with aggression, social anxiety and moral disengagement. Mediation analyses showed that fear of terrorism exerted a significant direct effect and an indirect effect via moral disengagement on aggression and authoritarianism in the US sample. Moderation analyses revealed that moral disengagement moderated the relationship between fear of terrorism and social anxiety in the Korean sample. Research limitations/implications This study has the common limitations of cross-sectional studies; i.e. it cannot prove causal relationships. Practical implications The findings support Albert Bandura’s view that efforts to address the excesses of counterterrorism and other negative outcomes of fear of terrorism, attending to issues of moral disengagement may be helpful. Originality/value The authors findings provide support for the view that fear of terrorism is associated with negative psychological and social outcomes and that moral disengagement can play an important role in those negative outcomes. Moreover, it adds to evidence that the negative role of moral disengagement shows considerable generalizability across gender and two very different cultures.

Consumer based brand equity in the 21st century: an examination of the role of social media marketing

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atefeh Yazdanparast ◽  
Mathew Joseph ◽  
Fernanda Muniz
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Brand Equity ◽  
Social Media Marketing ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Population ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The present research investigates the influence of brand-based social media marketing (SMM) activities on metrics of consumer-based brand equity (CBBE). Specifically, the study examines the role of consumer-brand social media experiences on attitude toward SMM activities of brands and its consequent impact on brand perceptions. Design/methodology/approach Paper-and-pencil surveys were administered to undergraduate students in a Southwestern university in exchange for extra credit. Survey questions were adapted from previously validated scales, and measurement adaptations were minimal and only related to the context of questions to assure their relevance with the context of this study. Bi-variate correlation, bootstrapping technique, Sobel test, ANOVA and linear regression were used to test the hypotheses. Findings The results indicate that brand-based SMM is essential in impacting consumers’ attitudes toward brands and consequently, CBBE reflected via perceived value for the cost, perceived uniqueness and the willingness to pay a price premium for a brand. Additionally, the main reason for individuals to use social media impacts their attitudes toward and receptiveness of SMM activities of brands. Research limitations/implications This study used a sample of college students to address the research questions. Considering the higher adoption rate and interest in social media among younger consumer groups, the results may not be representative of the entire population. Much of the existing research on social media, however, has focused on undergraduate college students and is primarily based on studies utilizing the similar research population. Originality/value The present research is one of the few studies that empirically examine the impact of consumer-brand interactions/experiences on consumers’ attitudes toward SMM activities of brands, as well as brand-related knowledge and perceptions as reflected by CBBE. The results indicate that the CBBE model of the twenty-first century should incorporate the role of brand-based SMM activities as facilitators of brand knowledge (i.e. brand awareness and brand image) by reinforcing or even shaping important brand-based associations.

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