Too Anxious to Talk: Social Anxiety, Communication, and Academic Experiences in Higher Education

Abstract

The first overarching goal of this doctoral dissertation was to develop and measure a new construct termed academic communication. Accordingly, Study 1 focussed on item development, pilot testing, and examining the psychometric properties of the newly developed Academic Communication Inventory (ACI). Undergraduate students (N = 642, Mage = 19.5) completed the ACI (assessing general communicative behaviours) along with other measures to investigate external validity. Results demonstrated that the best fitting structure of the ACI was a two-factor solution, consisting of the subscales: (1) communication with instructors; and (2) communication with peers. Study 2 assessed measure invariance across educational context (i.e., blended courses, online courses, offline courses), as well as gender differences in communication. Participants were undergraduate students (N = 1074, Mage = 20.3) who completed the ACI (assessing course-specific communicative behaviours), with 21% subset completing follow-up questionnaires (participants from Study 2 were also used in Studies 3 and 4 for different research purposes). Multi-group factor analyses suggested that the ACI could be used as both a general and course-specific measure of academic communication (i.e., the ACI was invariant across course contexts). Moreover, females and males reported different communication levels with instructors and peers. Study 3 focused on the utility of the ACI, by examining the links between social anxiety, communication, academic experiences (i.e., engagement, classroom connectedness, student satisfaction) andwellbeing. Among the results, academic communication accounted for significant variance in the links between social anxiety and academic experiences. Moreover, social anxiety was negatively related to academic experiences, and there was at least some The completion of this doctoral thesis would not have been possible without my amazing support system. To my advisor, Dr. Robert Coplan -thank you for the countless conversations about academia, research, and life in general. Rob, you never failed to provide advice that helped guide me through the throes of graduate school. Your wisdom, patience, encouragement, and unconditional support made this all possible. I am so lucky to call you my mentor and friend.I would like to thank the Coplan lab (past and present), for being there for brainstorming sessions, to vent frustrations, and for all the games nights. You helped to create a safe and fun space during a time of immense stress and pressure. A special shout out to Laura -I won't ever forget the hundreds of hours spent on the phone (you're welcome, Rogers), the emotional support you provided, your problem-solving abilities, and conferences.To my family, last but definitely not least. Thank you for always having faith in my abilities, and for always boosting my spirits when I needed it. Mom and Dad, throughout my life, you provided me with the tools I needed to excel. I would not be where I am without your unwavering support and encouragement. To my...

Too Anxious to Talk: Social Anxiety, Academic Communication, and Students’ Experiences in Higher Education

“…The ACI contains two subscales, Communication with Instructors and Communication with Peers rated on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree; for example, "I attend office hours"; "I send peers text messages about coursework"). Items on the ACI demonstrated good discrimination and information values when examined through item response theory, and both scales displayed good internal consistency, with alpha ranging from .86 to .88 (Archbell, 2020). Both scales demonstrated good internal consistency with the current sample (α = .84-.85).…”

“…Academic communication. Participants completed the recently created ACI (Archbell, 2020) to assess their communication behaviors for the purposes of academic achievement in a specific course. The ACI contains two subscales, Communication with Instructors and Communication with Peers rated on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree; for example, "I attend office hours"; "I send peers text messages about coursework").…”

“…Given the prevalence of social anxiety, it is imperative to explore additional mechanisms to explain the negative association between social anxiety and poor student experiences. Accordingly, this research examined the potential mediating role of the multimodal measure of academic communication (i.e., communication for the purpose of academic advancement; Archbell, 2020) in the links between social anxiety and important predictors of student success (i.e., student engagement, classroom community, and course satisfaction). Furthermore, the mediating roles of student engagement, classroom community, and course satisfaction were examined in the links between social anxiety and indices of socio-emotional functioning.…”