Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is the most common anxiety disorder, with a lifetime prevalence rate of 12.1% (1). SAD often precedes the onset of other anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and substance use disorders, suggesting that SAD is a risk factor for developing other psychological disorders (2, 3). The core feature of SAD is a “marked fear or anxiety about one or more social situations in which the individual is exposed to possible scrutiny by others” (2). Consequently, SAD is associated with significant impairment in social, work, school, and physical functioning (4), resulting in low quality of life (5). An examination of maladaptive behaviours in SAD can enhance our understanding of the functional impairment associated with SAD. Excessive reassurance-seeking (ERS) is “the repeated solicitation of safety-related information from others about a threatening object, situation or interpersonal characteristic despite having already received this information” (6). Socially anxious individuals engage in significantly more ERS than nonanxious individuals, and ERS predicts reduced partner-rated interaction quality (7), highlighting the negative interpersonal consequences of ERS that may maintain social anxiety. Further, researchers suggest that individuals with SAD seek negative feedback because it is consistent with their negative self-image (8). Research has provided support for this model, showing that socially anxious individuals preferentially seek negative feedback (9), which may validate negative self-beliefs and therefore maintain social anxiety. Given the proposed role of ERS and NFS in the maintenance of SAD, it is important to examine potential mechanisms underlying these behaviours. My proposed Master's project will examine early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) as a mechanism by which ERS and NFS predict social anxiety. EMSs are stable cognitive structures derived from early interpersonal experiences consisting of memories, cognitions, and emotions about the self and one’s relationships (10). Once activated by stressful events, EMSs may influence behaviour that, in turn, contributes to social anxiety (10, 11). The proposed study will be conducted at Ryerson University with 107 participants from undergraduate and community samples. Participants will complete the Young Schema Questionnaire-3 (12), which assesses EMSs; the Reassurance Seeking Scale (13), which assesses ERS; a modified version of the Feedback Seeking Questionnaire (14, 9), which assesses NFS; and the Social Phobia Inventory (15), which measures social anxiety. Consistent with previous research (16, 17) I expect that higher scores on other-directedness schemas (reflecting excessive concerns about gaining others' approval) and disconnection/rejection schemas (reflecting emotional deprivation and social undesirability) will predict higher ERS and NFS, respectively. Further, I predict that higher ERS and NFS will predict elevated levels of social anxiety. In other words, I hypothesize that the relation between EMSs and social anxiety will be mediated by ERS and NFS. Further, consistent with previous research (16, 18), I predict that women will score higher than men on measures of EMSs, ERS, NFS, and social anxiety, and that the associations between these variables will be stronger among women than men. This research has significant clinical implications, such that EMSs, ERS, and NFS may prove to be important targets in the treatment of SAD, particularly among women. The objective of this research is to improve the treatment of SAD by encouraging mental health professionals to target dysfunctional schemas and maladaptive feedback-seeking tendencies with the aim of reducing social anxiety and improving patients’ overall quality of life.