Negative Social Cognitions in Socially Anxious Youth: Distorted Reality or a Kernel of Truth?

Abstract

We review studies that investigate negative social cognitions of socially anxious youth in relation to two specific domains: interpretation of ambiguous social situations and self-evaluation of social performance, including social skills and nervous behaviors. In this review, we address the question whether socially anxious youth’s negative perceptions are distortions of reality or reflect a kernel of truth as compared to other sources of information including independent adult observers and age peers. Studies key to this question are those that investigate not only the social perceptions themselves but also the social behavior of socially anxious youth. Hence the selection of studies for the review was based on this criterion. From the relevant literature it is, as yet, unclear whether the negative interpretations of ambiguous social situations shown by socially anxious youth are distorted or a reflection of reality. Socially anxious youth’s self-evaluations of social skills appear partly distorted and partly true, depending on the person judging the social skills. In contrast, self-evaluations of nervous behaviors appear distorted. The studies reviewed indicate that research would benefit from including a wider range of perceptions from persons relevant to the socially anxious youth’s daily social environment, not only parents and teachers but also their age peers.

School refusal and anxiety in adolescence: Non-randomized trial of a developmentally sensitive cognitive behavioral therapy

“…Decreases in loneliness have been found to mediate treatment-related improvements in socially anxious children and adolescents (Alfano et al, 2009), and reduced loneliness may be especially important for socially anxious school-refusing adolescents given the inherently social nature of schooling and the increased importance of being able to 'fit in' with the peer group (Holmbeck, O'Mahar, Abad, Colder, & Updegrove, 2006). Assessing quality of peer relations was underscored in a recent review of the cognitions of socially anxious adolescents (Miers, Blöte, & Westenberg, 2011) and it warrants special attention in the case of socially anxious school refusers.…”

Social Anxiety and the School Environment of Adolescents

“…Several empirical studies show that socially anxious youth indeed have negative social perceptions. Compared to non-anxious youth, they interpret ambiguous social cues in a negative way (e.g., Blöte et al 2014 ;Miers et al 2008 ;Vassilopoulos and Banerjee 2008 ) and engage in negative interpretations or evaluations of their own behavior in social situations (Alfano et al 2006 ;Inderbitzen-Nolan et al 2007 ;Miers et al 2009Miers et al , 2011Ranta et al 2014 ).…”

Safety behaviors, self-focused attention and negative thinking in children with social anxiety disorder, socially anxious and non-anxious children

“…Related to the content of cognitions in children, the high presence of negative cognitions and low performance expectations have also been supported in childhood SAD (e.g., Alfano, Beidel, & Turner, 2006;Miers, Blöte, & Westenberg, 2010a;Spence, Donovan, & Brechman-Toussaint, 1999;Vassilopoulos & Banerjee, 2008), even though empirical evidence is less robust compared to adulthood (Alfano, Beidel, & Turner, 2002). In addition to investigating content and frequency of negative cognitions, some research focused on analyzing the balance between positive and negative self-talk with determining state of mind ratios (SOM; ratio of positive to negative thoughts).…”