title: Social anxiety spectrum.
abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide the prevalence rates of mild, moderate and severe symptoms of social anxiety in a sample of high school students and to analyze gender differences and associated impairment levels within these three levels of severity. Five hundred and twenty students were assessed with the Social Anxiety Spectrum Self-Report (SHY-SR), a questionnaire that explores social anxiety spectrum. By applying two cut-off scores determined on a separate sample by using ROC analysis, the large majority (73.3 %) of subjects were classified as low scorers, 9% as medium scorers and 17.7% as high scorers. Fears related to social situations were reported both by high and medium scorers. Functional impairment defined by avoidance and school difficulties was more common among high scorers, but it was also reported to a significant extent by medium scorers. Compared to low and medium scorers, high scorers showed a higher F/M ratio (about 4:1) and a more homogeneous symptomatological profile in the two genders. In conclusion, our report confirms, in line with the literature, that even moderate levels of social anxiety are associated with significant functional impairment and distress for the individuals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Neurobiology, Pharmacology and Biotechnologies, University of Pisa, Via Roma 67, 56127 Pisa, Italy. ldelloss@med.unipi.it
authors.forename: Liliana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dell'Osso
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rucci
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ducci
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ciapparelli
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vivarelli
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carlini
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ramacciotti
authors.forename: Giovanni B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Cassano
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000145:classification