Social context and the real-world consequences of social anxiety.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Social anxiety lies on a continuum, and young adults with elevated symptoms are at risk for developing a range of psychiatric disorders. Yet relatively little is known about the factors that govern the hour-by-hour experience and expression of social anxiety in the real world.

Methods

Here we used smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to intensively sample emotional experience across different social contexts in the daily lives of 228 young adults selectively recruited to represent a broad spectrum of social anxiety symptoms.

Results

Leveraging data from over 11 000 real-world assessments, our results highlight the central role of close friends, family members, and romantic partners. The presence of such close companions was associated with

SUBMITTER: Hur J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7028452 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature