Shame as a predictor of post-event rumination in social anxiety

ABSTRACT

Evidence shows that people with high social anxiety levels ruminate about distressing social events, which contributes to the maintenance of social anxiety symptoms. The present study aimed to explore the role of shame in maintaining post-event rumination (PER) following a negative social event (an impromptu speech with negative feedback) in a student sample (N = 104). Participants reported negative rumination related to the event one day and one week after the speech. PER measured one day after the speech was not associated with social anxiety symptoms and state anxiety. One week later, participants with clinically relevant social anxiety symptoms experienced greater PER. State shame was the only significant predictor of PER in a regression equation that also included social anxiety symptoms, state anxiety and self-evaluation of performance. Possible explanations and implications are discussed in light of cognitive models of social anxiety.

KEYWORDS:

• Rumination
• shame
• social anxiety
• post-event processing
• self-evaluation of performance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Depressive symptoms were measured using Beck Depression Inventory-II (Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996).

Additional information

Funding

This work was possible due to the financial support of the Sectorial Operational Program for Human Resources Development 2007–2013, co-financed by the European Social Fund, under the project number POSDRU/159/1.5/S/132400 with the title “Young successful researchers – professional development in an international and interdisciplinary environment”, awarded to Diana-Mirela Cândea.