A Multidimensional Approach to the Study of Social Anxiety and Friendships

<p>Despite its inherently interpersonal nature, the specific ways in which social anxiety symptoms interact with and impact friendships has not been well-studied. Research suggests that social anxiety, when compared with other psychological disorders, has a specific relationship with friendship impairment; however, the mechanisms that explain how this impairment functions over time are not well-understood. The current study sought to test whether interpersonal styles--dependence, avoidance, warmth, dominance, and emotional expressivity--mediate the relationship between social anxiety and both self- and friend-report friendship functioning over time. Participants consisted of undergraduate students who nominated a friend to participate in the study; both the participants and their friends filled out questionnaires assessing friendship functioning. The friend dyads were again asked to fill out questionnaires assessing friendship functioning 2 to 3 months later. Using longitudinal mediation analyses, models testing each interpersonal style as a mediator between social anxiety at Time 1 and both self- and friend-report friendship functioning independently at Time 2 were tested. None of the interpersonal styles significantly longitudinally mediated the relationship between social anxiety at Time 1 and friendship functioning at Time 2. Potential reasons for the lack of significant findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are explored.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Fernandez, Katya Christine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Thomas Rodebaugh

• friendship
• social anxiety

Language dc:language

English (en)

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7936/K7Z0369K

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:openscholarship.wustl.edu:etd-2300