Social Phobia

The Role of Emotion Regulation in the Treatment of Child Anxiety Disorders

“…Children with social anxiety may try to avoid socially distressing events (e.g., birthday parties, school activity nights, or playing on a sports team) because they fear they will embarrass themselves or others might laugh at them. If they find themselves in a stressful social situation, they are likely to experience an immediate anxiety response that will likely be evident in both physiological (e.g., nausea and shortness of breath), and behavioral symptoms (e.g., poor eye contact, stuttering, and nail biting) Ollendick and HirsfeldBecker 2002) or catastrophic thoughts, although these are less common for younger children with social anxiety disorder (Ollendick and Ingman 2001).…”