Social Anxiety and Self-Evaluation of Social Performance in a Nonclinical Sample of Children

Abstract

In an investigation of socially anxious children's social behavior and self-evaluation, 28 high socially anxious and 28 low socially anxious children, ages 11 to 13 years, appraised their performance before and after participating in a role-play task. Half of the children were given video feedback prior to giving their posttask self-evaluations. High socially anxious children anticipated poorer performance on the role-play task, and some group differences in observed social performance were evident. Self-evaluations from video feedback only improved for the high socially anxious children who displayed more eye contact, gave longer verbal responses, and used more constructive verbal strategies in the role-play scenarios.