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.
","abstract_html":"<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>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Fernandez, Katya Christine"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Thomas Rodebaugh"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-09-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2014-09-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:13:23Z","subjects":["friendship","social anxiety"],"languages":["English (en)"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7Z0369K"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://doi.org/10.7936/K7Z0369K","href":"https://doi.org/10.7936/K7Z0369K","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/1300","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Thomas Rodebaugh"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Fernandez, Katya Christine"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2014-10-08T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["friendship","social anxiety"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English (en)"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/1300"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7Z0369K"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["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.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A Multidimensional Approach to the Study of Social Anxiety and Friendships"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Thomas Rodebaugh"],"dc:creator":["Fernandez, Katya Christine"],"dc:date.available":["2014-10-08T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["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.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/etd/1300"],"dc:identifier.doi":["https://doi.org/10.7936/K7Z0369K"],"dc:language":["English (en)"],"dc:subject":["friendship","social anxiety"],"dc:title":["A Multidimensional Approach to the Study of Social Anxiety and Friendships"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:13:23Z"}