Resilience against social anxiety : The role of social networks in social anxiety disorder

• Main Author: Yngve, Adam
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för beteendevetenskap och lärande 2016
• Subjects: resilience; social network; social anxiety; social support
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-131140

Resilience refers to the capacity to quickly return to normal levels of functioning in the face of adversity. This capacity has previously been linked to social support. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of social networks in the association between resilience and social anxiety in a clinical group with social anxiety disorder (n = 41) and a control group of university students (n = 40). The results showed that controls were significantly more resilient than the clinical group. Controls had significantly larger, more diverse and active social networks than the clinical group. Resilience was negatively associated with social anxiety in both groups. In the clinical group, there was a significant partial mediation effect of resilience on social anxiety through the size of the social network, a x b = –0.33, 95% CI [–0.718, –0.111]. Potential clinical applications of these results were discussed.