Impact of Social Anxiety and Humor Styles on Mental Health

The present study is a “cross-sectional survey research”; aimed toward monitoring the impact of Social Anxiety and Humor Styles on Mental Health. For the study, 500 subjects (205 males, 295 females) were approached. The sample was obtained through the use of random sampling. “The age range” of the applicants was as of 18 to 31 years. The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale by Michael Liebowitz was used to measure the Social Anxiety among the participants, the “four Humor Styles (Affiliative, Self-enhancing, Aggressive and Self-defeating)” be measured by means of Humor Style Questionnaire by Dr. Rod A. Martin, and the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) by Veit and Ware was used to measure the Mental Health of the research participants. Results of the study revealed that Social Anxiety and Humor Styles have a significant impact on Mental Health. The study further monitored how men and women differ in terms of Social Anxiety, Humor Styles and Mental Health. The findings suggested that no gender differences exist in Social Anxiety and Mental Health. As far as the four Humor Styles are concerned, no gender difference was found in “Aggressive and Self-enhancing Humor Styles”; while Affiliative and “Self-defeating Humor Styles” varied in terms of gender. The findings of the study suggested that make use of the “Adaptive Humor Styles Affiliative and Self-enhancing” lessens the Social Anxiety and causes amelioration in the Mental Health; while the use of “Mal-adaptive Humor Styles (Aggressive and Self-defeating)” exacerbates the Social Anxiety and causes deterioration in the Mental Health.

Konvergenz von Skalen zur Erfassung sozialer Ängste: Ein IRT-Linking Ansatz

Zusammenfassung Ziel der Studie Bei der Untersuchung von sozialer Ängstlichkeit haben sich die Fragebögen Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) und das Social Phobia-Inventory (SPIN) etabliert. Außerdem wird zum Screening sozialer Ängstlichkeit häufig die Subskala Unsicherheit im Sozialkontakt des Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-53) eingesetzt. Alle drei Skalen geben vor dasselbe Konstrukt zu erfassen. Somit stellt sich die Frage der Konvergenz dieser Skalen. Um Forschungsergebnisse zu sozialer Ängstlichkeit, welche diese Instrumente nutzen, über einen fragebogenübergreifenden Faktor (Common-Faktor) vergleichbar zu machen, wird in der vorliegenden Studie ein Item Response Theorie (IRT) Linking Ansatz verwendet. Methodik 64 deutschsprachige psychiatrische Patienten und 295 Probanden aus der deutschen Normalbevölkerung füllten die drei Fragebögen aus. Verschiedene IRT-Modelle – darunter Graded Response Modelle (GRM) – wurden an die Daten angepasst und verglichen. Basierend auf dem Modell mit dem besten Fit wurden Regressionsanalysen durchgeführt. Der Common-Faktor wurde dabei jeweils von den Fragebogensummenwerten vorhergesagt. Ergebnisse Der Zusammenhang zwischen den verschiedenen Skalen wird am besten durch ein Bi-Faktor GRM erklärt (RMSEA=0,036; CFI=0,977; WRMR=1,061). Anhand der Ergebnisse der Regressionsanalysen lassen sich drei Gleichungen zur Transformation von Fragebogensummenwerten ableiten. Schlussfolgerung Durch den IRT Linking Ansatz konnte ein fragebogenübergreifender genereller Faktor Sozialer Ängstlichkeit abgeleitet werden. Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede wurden dabei berücksichtigt. Dies hat sowohl für die Forschung als auch für die Praxis Vorteile. Eine Replikation dieser Studie sowie die Implementierung weiterer Instrumente wird empfohlen, um die Gültigkeit dieses Ansatzes zu überprüfen und die Ergebnisse zu generalisieren.

INTERNET ADDICTION AND SOCIAL ANXIETY AMONG YOUNG ADULTS

The internet is one of the most widely used means of communication, connecting people all over the world, in association with the rapid escalation of consumed internet content and the wider availability of smartphones and tablets with internet access, is providing a new challenge for classical addictology which requires immediate solutions. High comorbidity of internet addiction with psychiatric disorders has been reported particularly anxiety disorders (generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder). Internet addiction and social anxiety in puberty are linked to signicant illness that lasts into adulthood. The objectives of this study were to nd out the level of internet addiction and social anxiety among male and female young adults and to study the relationship between internet addiction and social anxiety. The research was conducted on 100 male and female college going students. The data was collected through the purposive sampling method. Young's Internet Addiction Test was used to assess internet addiction, and Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale was used to assess social anxiety. The scores were calculated, and the data were analyzed using SPSS. The study found a correlation between internet addiction and social anxiety among male and female young adults (r =.018, P=.236). And found no signicant difference between males and females on the level of internet addiction and social anxiety. The results of the current study support prior evidence for the co-occurrence of internet addiction and social anxiety, while further studies need to clarify this association

Establishing the Psychometric Properties of the Self-Report Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescents in a General Population Adolescent Sample

The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescents (LSAS-CA) is a valid and reliable clinician-administered measure of social anxiety symptoms in young people. It has been adapted for self-report completion, and although the psychometric properties of this version of the scale have been examined in Spanish, Hebrew, and French language versions, this has not yet been done for the English language version. In the present study, we examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the self-report version of the scale (LSAS-CA-SR) in a sample of UK adolescents recruited from schools. The factor structure of the scale was determined in our sample of N = 829; a four-factor structure, with interaction anxiety, interaction avoidance, performance anxiety, and performance-avoidance subscales, provided the best fit to the data. Measurement invariance of the scale was demonstrated across age and gender. Psychometric properties of the scale were sound, with good internal consistency (.88–.97), acceptable test-retest reliability (.45–.57), and evidence for convergent and divergent validity.

KORELASI ANTARA SELF-COMPASSION DENGAN KECEMASAN SOSIAL PADA ANAK USIA SEKOLAH DASAR DI KOTA BANDUNG

Kecemasan sosial adalah perasaan dan pengalaman kognitif yang muncul karena adanya persepsi bahwa seorangindividu dievaluasi negatif oleh orang lain. Persepsi tersebut membuat individu menjadi sensitif terhadap kritik orang lain dan juga sering mengkritik diri secara negatif saat mengalami kegagalan. Perilaku evaluasi diri negatif dan mengkritik diri sendiri juga merupakan ciri self-compassion yang rendah. Self-compassion adalah keadaan menerima kegagalan dengan tetap memperlakukan diri sendiri dengan baik, memahami diri sendiri dengan tidak memberikan penilaian negatif pada ketidaksempurnaan diri, dan memandang pengalaman negatif yang dialami sebagai pengalaman yang umum terjadi. Penelitian ini dilakukan mengingat belum terdapat penelitian yang menghubungkan kecemasan sosial dengan self-compassion, khususnya pada anak sekolah dasar (8-12 tahun), dimana kecemasan sosial sudah dapat ditetapkan diagnosisnya pada usia tersebut. Pemilihan responden menggunakan metode cluster random sampling, dengan karakteristiknya adalah anak usia 8-12 tahun di Kota Bandung, jumlah responden 403 orang (laki-laki= 41,9%, perempuan= 58,15%). Alat ukur yang digunakan adalah Self-compassion Scale (SCS) dan Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale for Children (LSAS-C). Hasil uji reliabilitas untuk LSAS-C, adalah 0,911 dan SCS adalah 0,871. Analisis statistika korelasi dilakukan dengan menggunakan korelasi Pearson. Hasil dari uji korelasi menunjukkan adanya korelasi negatif antara self-compassion dan kecemasan sosial (r= -0,025). Semakin rendah self-compassion maka semakin tinggi kecemasan sosial.

Validity of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) Measurement Tool

Social phobia adalah ketakutan seseorang ketika beraktivitas di depan orang lain, seperti makan, minum, gemetar, memerah, berbicara, menulis atau muntah. Aktivitas ini merujuk kepada kecemasan dalam diri seseorang. Terdapat dua aspek yang dapat digunakan untuk mengidentifikasi kecemasan yaitu performance dan social. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji validasi alat ukur Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kuantitatif dengan kriteria subjek mahasiswa aktif strata 1 usia 17-25 tahun. Subjek penelitian berjumlah 177 mahasiswa dari berbagai perguruan tinggi di Indonesia. Data diperoleh melalui google form yang disebarkan secara online dan data diolah menggunakan aplikasi SPSS. Teknik sampling yang digunakan adalah accidental sampling sehingga subjek yang dibutuhkan adalah subjek yang memenuhi kriteria di atas. Validasi alat ukur pada penelitian ini menggunakan sumber bukti berdasarkan struktur internal dan korelasi dengan alat ukur lain (Beck Depression Inventory dan Social Interaction Anxiety Scale). Hasil yang diperoleh dari penelitian ini membuktikan bahwa alat ukur LSAS valid dan dapat digunakan untuk mengukur kecemasan sosial.

Beyond the interpersonal core of Schizotypal Personality and Autism: Associations between autism and schizotypal traits are not merely due to Social Anxiety.

Several lines of research have established overlap between autistic and schizotypal traits but there have been limited attempts to identify variables that might explain this overlap. As both sets of traits are individually associated with social anxiety, we investigated whether social anxiety traits could explain the overlap between them. To this end, the Autism Quotient (AQ), Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire Brief-Revised (SPQ-BR) and Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale-Self Report (LSAS-SR) were administered to a non-clinical population of 345 adults. Correlational analyses revealed strong, positive correlations between autistic, schizotypal, and social anxiety traits. After controlling for social anxiety, the association between total AQ and SPQ-BR scores remained modest and significant, suggesting that their association is not simply due to a shared association with social anxiety.

College student’s social anxiety: a study of the young people mental health in digital age

Purpose of this study is to analyze whether in the current era social anxiety problems are still developing among college students and whether there are any differences in the level of social anxiety was based on the year of entry (new college students - old college students) and gender. This research is a quantitative-descriptive and comparative studies. Hypotheses are there is no difference in social anxiety level based on the year of entry nor gender. The subjects are undergraduate college students totaled 364 people. Instrument used for data collection is Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale-Self Report (LSAs-SR). Results showed that 76.9% of the subjects experienced social anxiety. There is no difference in the level of social anxiety among new college students and old college college students nor between male college students and college students.

Severe Social Anxiety Among Adolescents During COVID-19 Lockdown

To study the prevalence of severe social anxiety (SSA) among a group of adolescents during the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A total of 178 adolescents attending the private clinics of the authors were screened online for the presence of SSA, by using the self-reporting format of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale for children and adolescents (LSAS-CA). SSA defined as LSAS-CA scores of 80 or more was checked for statistical association with the adolescents’ sociodemographic data and knowledge about the COVID-19 infection. The 18% of our participants had SSA, no correlation was found between having SSA and ä acknowledging or fearing the COVID-19 morbidity. Factors associated with SSA included texting, using social media, and playing video games during the lockdown. Mitigating factors include high family socioeconomic status, history of socialization with friends, and the use of WhatsApp as a source of information about COVID-19 infection.