Gaze Avoidance Explains the Association Between Anxiety Sensitivity Social Concerns and Social Anxiety
Autor: | Dominique Blanchette, Matt R. Judah, Nathan Hager, Katherina Nako |
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Rok vydání: | 2019 |
Předmět: |
050103 clinical psychology
media_common.quotation_subject 05 social sciences Social anxiety Psychological intervention Eye contact Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Cognition Gaze 030227 psychiatry Developmental psychology 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Anxiety sensitivity medicine Anxiety 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Worry medicine.symptom Psychology media_common |
Zdroj: | International Journal of Cognitive Therapy. 12:205-216 |
ISSN: | 1937-1217 |
Popis: | Anxiety sensitivity (AS), the fear of fear, has been proposed as a transdiagnostic feature of anxiety disorders. AS social concerns is a dimension of AS that involves worry about the social consequences of anxiety symptoms. Although AS social concerns has been linked to social anxiety both theoretically and empirically, few studies have considered processes that may explain this association. AS social concerns may be associated with avoidance of eye contact (gaze avoidance), which in turn may be associated with greater social anxiety. This hypothesis was tested using a sample of 190 undergraduate students. Self-reported gaze avoidance partially explained the association between AS social concerns and social anxiety. The model remained significant when controlling for other AS dimensions, general anxiety, and depression symptoms. The model was not moderated by race (Black, White), a finding which partially addresses the need to test how well theories apply to diverse populations. The findings advance cognitive frameworks of social anxiety by suggesting that gaze avoidance may explain associations between risk factors and symptoms. Additional research is needed to examine whether interventions that increase eye contact may weaken the association between AS social concerns and social anxiety. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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