Social anxiety in children: social skills deficit, or cognitive distortion?
BACKGROUND
Treatments for childhood social anxiety have traditionally employed social skills training, based on the assumption that effected children have social skills deficits. Recent conceptualisations of social anxiety in adults have questioned this assumption, and have suggested that socially anxious individuals merely believe that they have skill deficits. A recent study using children provided preliminary confirmation of this for younger populations, and also suggested that beliefs about appearing nervous are of particular importance.


METHODS
Two groups of children, aged 10-11 years (analogue high social anxiety/low social anxiety), participated in a conversation with an unfamiliar adult. They then rated their performance in a number of domains, after which independent observers also rated their performances.


RESULTS
Independent observers were unable to distinguish between the low and high social anxiety groups. However, high socially anxious children rated themselves as appearing significantly less skilled than their low socially anxious counterparts. Notably, high socially anxious children rated themselves particularly poorly in terms of how nervous they looked.


CONCLUSIONS
Socially anxious children may not necessarily display social skill deficits. However, they may believe that they appear nervous during social encounters. Clinicians should consider using CBT techniques to address these concerns, rather than relying on social skill remediation.
Cartwright-Hatton
Sam
S
University of Manchester Department of Child Psychiatry, Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Hospital Road, Pendlebury, Manchester M27 4HA, UK. sam.cartwright-hatton@man.ac.uk
Tschernitz
Nicole
N
Gomersall
Helen
H
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012649:Self Concept; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires