Social Anxiety in Iranian Adolescent Students based on Clark and Wells Cognitive Model (1995)

Abstract

Background: Existence of social anxiety in adolescents have been examined in various cognitive behavioral models such as Clark and Wells Cognitive Model that has been tried to justify the maintenance of this anxiety in them. The present study aimed to investigate the correlation between the variables of Clark and Wells (1995) Cognitive Model and Social Anxiety in Iranian Adolescent students.Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study; a student sample (N=220) was selected from Parsian and Asaluyeh schools in 2021-2022. An online form was used to collect data on Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A), Social Phobia Weekly Summary Scale (SPWSS), Focus of Attention Questionnaire – Self-focus subscale (FAQ-S), Report of Youth Social Cognitions (RYSC), Subtle Avoidance Frequency Examination (SAFE), Post-event Processing Questionnaire-5 item version (PEPQ-5), and Birleson Depression Self-Rating Scale (DSRS). Pearson correlation and regression analysis were used for data analysis.Results: A positive correlation was found between social anxiety and anticipatory processing (P<0.001, r=0.33), maladaptive social-evaluative beliefs (P<0.001, r=0.58), safety behaviors (P<0.001, r=0.63), and post-event processing (P<0.001, r=0.28). The high socially anxious group had significantly greater scores on the social anxiety measure and all the maintaining factors (P<0.001) except the self-focus measure (P=0.235).Conclusion: The study results suggested that there is a positive correlation between the variables of Clark and Wells (1995) Cognitive Model and Social Anxiety in Iranian adolescent students.

Keywords

• social phobia
• adolescence
• cognitive-behavioral intervention