title: Self and friend's differing views of social anxiety disorder's effects on friendships.
abstract: Social anxiety disorder is known to be associated with self-report of global friendship quality. However, information about specific friendships, as well as information beyond self-report, is lacking. Such information is crucial, because known biases in information processing related to social anxiety disorder render global self-ratings particularly difficult to interpret. We examined these issues focusing on diagnosed participants (n = 77) compared with community control participants (n = 63). We examined self-report regarding global (i.e., overall) friendship quality and a specific friendship's quality; in addition, we examined friend-report of that friendship's quality. Results suggested that social anxiety disorder has a negative impact on self-perception of friendship quality for a specific friendship, but that this effect is less evident as reported by the friends. Specifically, social anxiety disorder was associated with a tendency to report worse friendship quality in comparison to friend-report, particularly in participants who were younger or had less long-lasting friendships. However, friend-report did show clear differences based on diagnostic group, with friends reporting participants with social anxiety disorder to be less dominant in the friendship and less well-adjusted. Overall, the findings are consistent with results of other studies indicating that social anxiety disorder has a strong association with self-ratings of impairment, but that these ratings appear out of proportion with the report of observers (in this case, friends).
authors.affiliation: Washington University.
authors.forename: Thomas L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Rodebaugh
authors.affiliation: Washington University.
authors.forename: Michelle H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Washington University.
authors.forename: Katya C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Fernandez
authors.affiliation: Washington University.
authors.forename: Julia K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Langer
authors.affiliation: Washington University.
authors.forename: Jaclyn S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Weisman
authors.affiliation: Washington University.
authors.forename: Natasha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tonge
authors.affiliation: Washington University.
authors.forename: Cheri A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Levinson
authors.affiliation: Washington University.
authors.forename: Erik A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Shumaker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D057566:Self Report