What would you do?

Journal of Anxiety Disorders 23 (2009) 965–972

The correlates and consequences of early appearing social anxiety in young children

Murray Weeks *, Robert J. Coplan *, Adam Kingsbury

Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

A R T I C L E I N F O

Article history:

Received 19 December 2008

Received in revised form 10 June 2009

Accepted 11 June 2009

Keywords:

Social anxiety

Early childhood development

Social adjustment

Emotional adjustment

Teachers

A B S T R A C T

Social anxiety is the fear of social situations and being negatively evaluated by others. Most previous

studies of childhood social anxiety have employed clinical samples of children aged 10 years and older.

The current study explored the correlates of social anxiety in an unselected sample of young children.

Participants were n = 178 elementary school children in grade 2 (aged 7–8 years). Children were

individually administered the Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised (SASC-R), as well as measures of

socio-emotional adjustment. Teachers completed measures of children’s socio-emotional problems and

school adjustment. Results indicated that social anxiety was positively associated with self-reported

loneliness, school avoidance, and internalizing coping, and negatively related to school liking. However,

social anxiety was mostly unrelated to teacher-rated outcomes. Findings are discussed in terms of use of

the SASC-R for this type of population and reasons for the disparity between child and teacher reports of

adjustment outcomes.

� 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Social anxiety is the fear of social situations and being negatively evaluated by others (DSM-IV, 1994). Most of the research on childhood social anxiety has focused on clinical populations (e.g., diagnosed with social phobia). However, a growing body of research suggests that feelings of social anxiety in the absence of a diagnosable disorder are nevertheless potentially maladaptive for children. The few nonclinical studies of childhood social anxiety have focused mostly on older children and adolescents. Much less is known about the correlates and consequences of social anxiety in younger children. The primary goal of the current study was to investigate the socio-emotional correlates of social anxiety in an unselected sample of early elementary school children (aged 7–8 years).

1. Etiology of social anxiety in childhood

Social fears are quite stable across childhood and adolescence (Kagan & Moss, 1962), even more so than other childhood fears (Achenbach, 1985). Many researchers exploring the childhood origins of social anxiety have focused on the role of biological and genetic factors (e.g., Warren, Schmidt, & Emde, 1999). For example, children are at a greater risk for developing an anxiety disorder if

* Corresponding authors at: Department of Psychology, Carleton University, 1125

Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6 Canada.

E-mail addresses: mweeks@connect.carleton.ca (M. Weeks),

robert_coplan@carleton.ca (R.J. Coplan).

0887-6185/$ – see front matter � 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2009.06.006

the disorder is present in their parents (e.g., Beidel & Turner, 1997). Indeed, in their metaanalysis of twin research, Beatty, Heisel, Hall, Levine, and La France (2002) reported a heritability quotient of social anxiety of 65%.

Many theorists also suggest that a key etiological component of the development of social anxiety is a shy or inhibited style of temperament (e.g., Bogels & Tarrier, 2004; Chorpita & Barlow, 1998; Kagan, 1997; Kimbrel, 2008; Manassis & Bradley, 1994; Ollendick & Hirshfeld-Becker, 2002; Rapee & Spence, 2004; Turner, Beidel, & Wolff, 1996). Behavioral inhibition is a temperamental trait that is marked by wariness and discomfort in response to unfamiliar people and novel environments (Kagan, 1997). There is growing empirical evidence linking behavioral inhibition in early childhood to the later development of social anxiety disorder (e.g., Biederman et al., 1993, 2001). There is continued debate in the literature concerning the conceptual and empirical distinctions between behavioral inhibition/shyness and social anxiety in childhood (e.g., Degnan & Fox, 2007) and adulthood (Chavira, Stein, & Malcarne (2002)). For example, it has been suggested that behavioral inhibition and social anxiety should regarded as being part of the same continuum (e.g., Rettew, 2000). However, many researchers maintain that temperamental shyness/inhibition is most appropriately conceptualized as a vulnerability towards the development later anxiety (see Rapee & Coplan, in press, for a recent review).

Development of social anxiety has also been linked to environmental factors such as the childrearing styles of parents. For example, Rapee (1997) identified two childrearing-related

M. Weeks et al. / Journal of Anxiety Disorders 23 (2009) 965–972966

responses which are important contributors to childhood anxiety. Parental rejection (i.e., criticism, lack of communication, lack of affection), and parental control (i.e., overprotective behaviors, lack of child-autonomy), both appear to be related to greater anxiety in childhood. It has also been suggested that inconsistent childrearing practices (i.e., contradictory parenting behaviors displayed at unpredictable, varying times) may be related to an increase in childhood anxiety (Kohlmann, Schumacher, & Streit, 1988). Familial cohesion may also play a role in the development of childhood anxiety. Indeed, anxious children tend to report less family cohesiveness compared to nonanxious children (Stark, Humphrey, Crook, & Lewis, 1990).

Another mechanism through which parenting might affect social anxiety is social modeling. For instance, children are able to acquire anxious emotions at least partly through observing their parents’ facial expressions in response to stressful situations (e.g., Gerull & Rapee, 2002). It has been suggested that when parents model anxious behavior, children may come to view problems as unsolvable, catastrophic, and dangerous (Wood, McLeod, Sigman, Hwang, & Chu, 2003). In this way, anxious parents may (consciously or not) extinguish, or punish children’s expressions of problem-focused coping styles, and develop maladaptive strategies to deal with problems (Whaley, Pinto, & Sigman, 1999; Wood et al., 2003).

In support of this developmental model, Coplan, Arbeau, and Armer (2008) recently reported a moderating role of parental characteristics in the relation between temperamental inhibition (i.e., shyness) and emotion problems (i.e., anxiety) in early childhood. Results indicated that relations between shyness (as assessed at the start of the school year) and parent/teacher ratings of emotion problems (at the end of the school year) were significantly stronger among children with mothers characterized by higher neuroticism, threat sensitivity (i.e., higher BIS), and an overprotective parenting style.

2. Childhood correlates of social anxiety

Socially anxiety disorder (or social phobia) is most typically diagnosed in adolescence (Klein, 2009). It has been previously suggested that younger children do not possess the requisite ability to make associations between their subjective feelings of anxiety and social situations they encounter (e.g., Morris & Masia, 1998), and may only begin to experience social fears as the focus of their fears at age 14 and older (e.g., Warren & Sroufe, 2004; Westenberg, Siebelink, & Treffers, 2001). However, in recent years there has been a shift towards diagnoses of social phobia in younger children (Beidel & Turner, 2007). Moreover, both developmental and clinical researchers have also begun to consider the implications of elevated (but subclinical) levels of social anxiety in early childhood (e.g., Feng, Shaw, & Silk, 2008; Rubin, Coplan, & Bowker, 2009).

It has been argued that although young children who have difficulty interacting with other children and adults may not meet diagnostic criteria for social phobia, they can be viewed as part of the ‘‘social anxiety spectrum’’ (Morris, Hirshfeld-Becker, Henin, & Storch, 2004). Moreover, given that childhood anxiety symptoms tend to persist through adolescence and into adulthood (Ialongo, Edelsohn, Werthammer-Larsson, Crockett, & Kellam, 1995; Last, Perrin, Hersen, & Kazdin, 1996), subclinical levels of anxiety in early childhood are now widely considered to be a risk factor for the later development of more significant internalizing disorders (Banerjee & Henderson, 2001; Goodwin, Fergusson, & Horwood, 2004; Morris et al., 2004).

Morris (2001) postulated that social anxiety in elementary school can have negative consequences because it can hinder the important development of social skills, which have long been

believed to be important for children’s future development (e.g., Piaget, 1970). Others have suggested that due to their ‘‘meek nature,’’ shy and anxious children may easily become ‘‘invisible’’ to teachers (Evans, 2001; Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2002; Rimm-Kauf- man & Kagan, 2005). Accordingly, there has been mixed findings regarding the level of concordance between teacher and child perceptions of child anxiety, with some studies reporting moderate levels of associations (e.g., Bokhorst, Goossens, & de Ruyter, 1995) and others reporting a lack of association (e.g., Cartwright-Hutton, Tschernitz, & Gomersall, 2005).

Notwithstanding, social anxiety in childhood has been asso- ciated with a number of social-cognitive deficits and socio- emotional problems. As compared with their nonanxious peers, socially anxious children are more likely to anticipate negative consequences in social interactions and display biases in their interpretations of facial expressions (e.g., Battaglia et al., 2004; Melfsen & Florin, 2002; Reijntjes, Dekovic, & Telch, 2007). Moreover, social anxiety has been associated with lower percep- tions of social acceptance, lower self-esteem, lower popularity, and more difficulty forming friendships (e.g., Beidel & Turner, 2007; Bokhorst, Goossens, & De Ruyter, 2001; La Greca & Stone, 1993). These links to socio-emotional problems are not surprising, considering that social anxiety has been viewed as a sign of dissatisfaction within the peer group (e.g., Asher & Wheeler, 1985).

Socially anxious children also seem to react negatively to stressful situations. Emotional reactions in children with social anxiety can be quite severe and contribute to a distressing experience for the child. Children with clinical levels of social anxiety report frequent somatic complaints such as headaches, stomach aches, panic attacks, and frequent crying (Beidel, Turner, & Morris, 2000). A study by La Greca, Silverman, and Wasserstein (1998) suggests that socially anxious children have stronger reactions to traumatic events. This may be due to a biological predisposition, learned behavior, or a combination of the two. In any case, this finding highlights the potentially maladaptive way that socially anxious children experience the world. Moreover, as these children grow up, their social anxiety seems to become progressively more maladaptive. Children’s feelings of anxiety in kindergarten have been associated with anxiety symptoms and impairments in school achievement in grade 5 (Ialongo et al., 1995). Also, adolescents diagnosed with social phobia are often more severely affected than children with the same diagnosis (Rao et al., 2007).

3. Measuring social anxiety in children

Researchers have previously noted that the relative lack of studies examining social anxiety in children is largely due to a lack of reliable age-appropriate measures of the construct (e.g., Beidel, Turner, & Morris, 1995). However, a growing literature suggests that social anxiety indeed can be reliably measured in much younger children (e.g., La Greca & Stone, 1993). Not surprisingly, there has been an increase in the number of studies examining social anxiety in younger children, and several measures of childhood social anxiety have been developed. However, most assessments of childhood social anxiety, including diagnostic interviews as well as parent- and child reports, have been designed for clinical populations (e.g., SPAI-C; Beidel et al., 1995).

The Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised (SASC-R; La Greca & Stone, 1993) was designed to measure subjective feelings of social anxiety in unselected (i.e., nonclinical) samples, although it has also been used as a clinical diagnostic measure (Ginsburg, La Greca, & Silverman, 1998). Although some research suggests that the SASC-R is only moderately correlated with other self-report measures of childhood social anxiety (e.g., Morris & Masia, 1998), it has been suggested that this is due to the fact that some

M. Weeks et al. / Journal of Anxiety Disorders 23 (2009) 965–972 967

of these measures were designed specifically to assess clinical social phobia, while the SASC-R was designed to assess feelings of social anxiety in general (Ginsburg et al., 1998).

It may be particularly important to identify social anxiety when children are young. For example, Hirshfeld-Becker and Biederman (2002) argued that because young children’s brains are developing to a greater degree and have greater neuroplasticity, they would be more capable of learning new skills to help with social anxiety. This suggests that social anxiety intervention programs might be particularly effective in young children (e.g., Rapee, Kennedy, Ingram, Edwards, & Sweeney, 2005).

To our knowledge, only two studies (Ginsburg et al., 1998; Sandin, Valiente, Chorot, Santed, & Sanchez-Arribas, 1999) have used the SASC-R with children younger than 9 years of age. Moreover, Ginsburg et al. (1998) were using a clinical sample with an age range of 6–11 years, and Sandin et al.’s (1999) unselected sample included three cohorts, only one of which was under 11 years of age. Therefore, no studies to date have used the SASC-R to examine social anxiety in a sample exclusively under the age of 9 years.

4. The current study

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the socio- emotional outcomes of social anxiety in grade 2 children. Most previous research has focused on the implications of social anxiety in clinical samples. We expected young children display of heightened (but subclinical) levels of social anxiety also to be with negative socio-emotional outcomes, including loneliness, school avoidance, and less school liking. Also, we expected that socially anxious children would use different and more maladap- tive coping strategies in response to social stressors than their nonanxious peers. In particular, we expected that socially anxious children would be most likely to use internalizing coping strategies (characterized by excessive worrying).

We were also interested in the extent to which teacher ratings of children’s anxiety and outcomes are associated with child self- reports. As mentioned previously, there is some debate in the literature regarding the links between teacher- and self-reports of children’s social anxiety. For this reason (along with influence of shared-method variance), we expected children’s self-reported social anxiety to be more strongly related to their self-reported outcomes than with outcomes rated by teachers.

5. Methods

5.1. Participants

Participants in this study were n = 178 children (93 boys, 85 girls) aged 7–8 years (Mage = 7.57, S.D. = .31 years). Children were enrolled in grade 2 classes in 15 public schools located in Ottawa, Canada. The overall consent rate was calculated at just over 60%. Children and parents were not compensated for their participation. The sample was 75% Caucasian, with a variety of other ethnicities also represented (10% Asian, 5% Black, 4% Hispanic). Approximately 18% of mothers and 24% of fathers had completed high school only, 69% of mothers and 62% of fathers had a college/university degree, and 11% of mothers and 10% of fathers also had some postgraduate experience. The public school board from which the sample was drawn did not permit the collection of information regarding parental employment status and income.

5.2. Procedures

Participants were recruited at the start of the school year (September) via information letters sent home with children.

Consenting mothers then completed ratings of their own personality and their children’s shyness. Children were then interviewed individually by trained researchers on two separate occasions (February and April). Because of the younger age of the children who comprised the sample in this study, we adapted the protocol for administering the child self-report measures. For each measure (see below), individual items were read aloud to the child being interviewed. Children were asked to respond to each item with a ‘‘yes,’’ ‘‘sometimes,’’ or ‘‘no’’ by pointing to one of three differently sized circles. The children all received initial training on using this response format and responded to several practice items before the assessment items were presented. Finally, near the end of the school year (May), teachers completed assessments of children’s socio-emotional functioning.

5.3. Measures

Multisource assessment was employed, including maternal ratings, individual child interviews, and teacher ratings.

Maternal reports. Mothers completed the Child Social Preference Scale (CSPS; Coplan, Prakash, O’Neil, & Armer, 2004). The CSPS has good psychometric properties and has been used in previous studies as a parental report of child shyness and social disinterest (Coplan & Armer, 2005; Coplan et al., 2004, 2008). Of particular interest for the current study was the subscale of shyness (7 items, a = .86, e.g., ‘‘My child seems to want to play with others, but is sometimes nervous to’’).

Mothers also rated their own personality using the BIS/BAS Scales (Carver & White, 1994). This measure was designed to assess personality based the relative strengths of the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) and behavioral activation system (BAS). The BIS/BAS Scales have good validity and reliability in adult samples (e.g., Carver & White, 1994). For the present study, we were particularly interested in the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) subscale (7 items, a = .77, e.g., ‘‘I worry about making mistakes’’), which focuses on threat perception and orientation towards punishment.

Child interviews. Children were interviewed individually by trained research assistants on two separate occasions. Among the interview assessments was the Social Anxiety Scale for Children- Revised (SASC-R, La Greca, 1998). This 18-item self-report measure assesses three subscales of social anxiety: fear of negative evaluation (8 items, e.g., ‘‘I worry about being teased.’’); social avoidance and distress to novelty (6 items, ‘‘I feel shy around kids I don’t know.’’); and general social avoidance and distress (4 items, e.g. ‘‘I am quiet when I’m with a group of kids.’’). This measure has been widely used to assess social anxiety in children aged 6–13 (e.g., Cartwright-Hutton et al., 2005; Gazelle et al., 2005; Ginsburg et al., 1998; Muris, Merckelbach, & Damsma, 2000; Reijntjes et al., 2007; Sandin et al., 1999; Storch, Eisenberg, Roberti, & Barlas, 2003). The three subscales have internal consistency between a = .69 and .86 (La Greca & Stone, 1993). In support of the validity of the SASC-R, La Greca and Stone (1993) found that scores on the SASC-R were negatively associated with child ratings of social acceptance and self-worth. Also, Storch et al. (2003) found positive correlations between SASC-R scores and self-reported depression and loneliness.

In the current sample, the three subscales had internal consistency scores of: fear of negative evaluation (a = .85); social avoidance and distress to novelty (a = .77); and general social avoidance and distress (a = .59). These three subscales were highly intercorrelated (with r’s ranging from .50 to .75, all P’s < .001). Moreover, results from factor analysis suggested that all items loaded a single factor. Thus, a total scale score was computed representing social anxiety (18 items, a = .90). In the current study, the focus was not on any of the three subscales in particular, and

Table 1 Descriptive statistics for study variables.

Variable Mean S.D. Range

Parent ratings Child shyness 2.09 .73 1.00–4.14

Maternal BIS 2.98 .53 1.43–4.00

Child reports Social anxiety 1.80 .46 1.00–3.00

Loneliness 1.41 .36 1.00–3.00

School liking 2.70 .33 1.44–3.00

School avoidance 1.87 .52 1.00–3.00

Social support coping 2.34 .38 1.25–3.00

Problem solving coping 2.38 .34 1.13–3.00

Internalizing coping 1.55 .43 1.00–3.00

Teacher ratings Anxious with peers 1.34 .42 1.00–2.75

Prosocial with peers 2.35 .57 1.00–3.00

Excluded by peers 1.20 .41 1.00–3.00

Academic skills 3.28 .78 1.22–5.00

Table 2 Summary of hierarchical regression analyses predicting child social anxiety from

child gender, child shyness and maternal BIS.

Variables entered R2 F DR2 DF b

Step 1 .001 <1

Child sex �.01

Step 2 .021 1.83 .021 3.69*

Child shyness .15*

Step 3 .040 2.38+ .019 3.49*

Maternal BIS .14*

* P < .05. + P < .08.

M. Weeks et al. / Journal of Anxiety Disorders 23 (2009) 965–972968

research suggests that the total score is a valid measure of social anxiety (Ginsburg et al., 1998). Therefore, only the total scores (representing overall anxiety) are reported in the results.

Also included in the interviews was the Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Questionnaire for Young Children (Asher, Hymel, & Renshaw, 1984), consisting of 16 items (along with 8 filler items) related to loneliness and social dissatisfaction (a = .88, e.g., ‘‘Do you have kids to play with at school?’’). Children also completed the School Liking and Avoidance Scale (Ladd, Buhs, & Seid, 2000) to assess school liking (9 items, a = .83, e.g., ‘‘Do you like to come to school?’’) and school avoidance (5 items, a = .83, e.g., ‘‘Do you wish you could stay home from school?’’).

Finally, children completed the Self-Report Coping Scale (Causey & Dubow, 1992), designed to assess the use of various coping strategies in response to a social stressor (i.e., conflict with a friend). Of particular interest for the current study were the subscales assessing internalizing coping (4 items, a = .65, e.g., ‘‘worry too much about it’’), seeking social support (8 items, a = .73, e.g., ‘‘ask a family member for advice’’), and problem-focused coping (8 items, a = .69, e.g., ‘‘try to think of different ways to solve it’’)1.

Teacher ratings. Teachers completed the Child Behavior Scale (CBS; Ladd & Profilet, 1996). Of particular interest for the present study were the subscales of anxious with peers (4 items, a = .75, e.g., ‘‘tends to be fearful or afraid of new things or new situations’’), prosocial with peers (7 items, a = .93, e.g., ‘‘kind towards peers’’), and excluded by peers (7 items, a = .94, ‘‘peers refuse to let this child play with them’’). Finally, teachers provided a rating scale assessment of child academic skills (Coplan, Gavinski-Molina, Lagace-Seguin, & Wichmann, 2001; Coplan et al., 2008), including language, reading/writing, math, science, motor skills, and reason- ing (9 items, a = 92.).

6. Results

6.1. Predicting social anxiety scores

Parental education was not significantly associated with the child anxiety subscales or the total score. As such, this variable was not controlled for in subsequent analyses. Descriptive statistics for the study variables are displayed in Table 1.

The goal of the first set of analyses was to explore the role of child sex, child shyness, and maternal BIS in the prediction of child social anxiety. A hierarchical regression analysis was computed, with social anxiety serving as the dependent variable. At Step 1, child sex (dummy coded) was entered into the equation, followed by child shyness at Step 2, and maternal BIS at Step 3. Results are summarized in Table 2.

There was no significant sex difference in self-reported social anxiety. Controlling for child sex, child shyness was significantly and positively related to social anxiety. Furthermore, beyond the contribution of these two variables, maternal BIS was also significantly and positively associated with child social anxiety. Thus, both child shyness and maternal BIS were significant (albeit modest) predictors of child social anxiety.

6.2. Outcomes of socially anxious children

The goal of the next set of analyses was to explore the socio- emotional outcomes of social anxiety in young children. In this regard, we created a group of socially anxious children (n = 31, 19 boys, 12 girls) whose social anxiety scores on the SASC-R were greater than 1 S.D. above the mean, and a comparison group of

1 Although the internal consistencies of these scales were somewhat modest in

the present sample, they are consistent with the previous results reported by

Causey and Dubow (1992).

nonanxious children (n = 95, 50 boys, 45 girls) whose social anxiety scores were below the mean. We then computed a series of 2(Sex) � 2(Group) Multivariate Analyses of Variance to explore Group differences in child self-report and teacher-rated outcomes.

The first MANOVA included measures of child loneliness, school liking, and school avoidance. Results indicated only a significant multivariate main effect of Group (F(3,119) = 20.49, P < .001). Results from subsequent univariate analyses demonstrated a significant effect of Group for child loneliness (F(1,121) = 54.73, P < .001, h2 = .311), school liking (F(1,121) = 5.98, P < .05, h2 = .047), and school avoidance (F(1,121) = 9.90, P < .01, h2 = .076). Relevant means are displayed in Fig. 1a. As compared to their nonanxious peers, socially anxious children reported significantly more loneliness and school avoidance, and signifi- cantly less school liking.

The next MANOVA included measures of child coping strategies, including internalizing, seeking social support, and problem-focused coping. Again, results indicated only a significant multivariate main effect of Group (F(3,119) = 8.670, P < .001). Results from subsequent univariate analyses demonstrated a significant effect of Group for internalizing coping (F(1,121) = 23.45, P < .001, h2 = .162), a marginally significant effect for seeking support (F(1,121) = 3.25, P < .08, h2 = .026), and no significant effect for problem solving (F(1,121) < 1, ns). Relevant means are displayed in Fig. 1b. As compared to their nonanxious peers, socially anxious children reported using significantly more internalizing coping and a somewhat greater tendency seek social support when dealing with a social stressor.

The next MANOVA included teacher ratings of child anxiety, exclusion by peers, and prosocial behaviors. For these measures, results indicated only a significant multivariate main effect of Sex (F(3,102) = 6.36, P < .01). Results from subsequent univariate

Fig. 1. Group means comparing socially anxious and nonanxious children in terms of: (a) loneliness, school liking, and school avoidance and (b) internalizing, seeking

social support, and problem-focused coping.

M. Weeks et al. / Journal of Anxiety Disorders 23 (2009) 965–972 969

analyses demonstrated only a significant effect of Sex for prosocial behavior (F(1,104) = 16.10, P < .001, h2 = .134), indicating that teachers rated girls (M = 2.56, S.D. = .45) as more prosocial with peers than boys (M = 2.15, S.D. = .59).

The final analysis concerned Group differences in teacher ratings of child academic skills. Results of the ANOVA indicated only a significant effect of Group (F(1,104) = 5.60, P < .05, h2 = .162), indicating that teachers rated socially anxious children (M = 2.93, S.D. = .86) as less academically skilled than nonanxious children (M = 3.37, S.D. = .73).

7. Discussion

The goal of the current study was to investigate the socio- emotional correlates of social anxiety in an unselected sample of 7–8-year-old children. Our findings suggested that younger children are indeed able to provide internally consistent and valid self-reports of social anxiety. Moreover, higher levels of social anxiety at this age period were also associated with indices of socio-emotional difficulties.

7.1. Assessing social anxiety in younger children

As previously noted, lack of research addressing nonclinical social anxiety in childhood has been largely due to a lack of age- appropriate measures. Our findings provide some initial evidence to suggest that the SASC-R can be used as an appropriate measure of social anxiety in 7- and 8-year-old children (the youngest nonclinical sample in the literature to date). To begin with, the factor structure and internal consistency scores of the SASC-R were consistent with previous findings in older samples (e.g., Ginsburg et al., 1998; La Greca & Stone, 1993).

As well, children’s self-reported social anxiety from the SASC-R was significantly related to both child temperamental shyness and maternal BIS (i.e., threat perception). Shyness is seen an important temperamental contributor to the etiology of social anxiety (e.g., Biederman et al., 2001; Hudson & Rapee, 2001). Moderate associations noted in the present study are consisted with previous research linking shyness and anxiety in childhood and adolescence (e.g., Coplan et al., 2008; Muris, Meesters, & Blijlevens, 2007) and support the distinction between these two constructs (Rapee & Coplan, in press).

We also found that social anxiety was related to maternal BIS, which is consistent with previous research regarding the socializ- ing influence of parents in the development of social anxiety (e.g., Hudson & Rapee, 2004). For example, children whose mothers display anxious behaviors are more likely to experience worry (e.g., Brown & Whiteside, 2008). However, this relation also supports the biological component of social anxiety, in that maternal char- acteristics such as behavioral inhibition are likely passed on through genetics to a degree.

Taken together, these conceptually consistent associations between social anxiety and indices of both child temperament and maternal personality can be taken as preliminary evidence of the convergent validity of the SASC-R with this age group.

7.2. Correlates of early social anxiety

Overall, our findings indicate that children who reported greater feelings of social anxiety also tended to experience other difficulties in socio-emotional functioning. These results add to the growing literature suggesting that feelings of social anxiety can have negative implications, even in the absence of a diagnosed clinical anxiety disorder. For example, socially anxious children in our sample reported feeling more lonely than their nonanxious peers. This finding is in keeping with previous research suggesting that socially anxious children are less popular and have more difficulty forming friendships (e.g., Bokhorst et al., 2001; La Greca & Stone, 1993).

Moreover, our results also suggest that socially anxious children are not enjoying the time they spend at school. Socially anxious children were more likely to report disliking school and wanting to avoid school in comparison to nonanxious children. These results are also not surprising considering La Greca and Stone’s (1993) findings as to difficulty socially anxious children have in forming friendships. The school setting is often the primary context for the building of friendships at this age, and therefore we would expect socially anxious children not to enjoy spending time in a context where they find it so difficult to make friends. Also, previous research has suggested that social anxiety in childhood is associated with school refusal (Elliott, 1999; Heyne, King, & Tonge, 2004). It is also worth noting that the school adjustment problems of anxious children were not limited to the social realm.

Socially anxious children also report more negative coping styles in response to social stressors. In comparison to nonanxious children, socially anxious children indicated they would be more likely to employ internalizing strategies that include worry and self-blame. This type of maladaptive coping may be particularly problematic for young children already at risk for social anxiety. For example, Findlay, Coplan, and Bowker (2009) recently reported that internalizing coping mediated the relation between shyness and self-reported coping in later childhood. These authors suggested that shy children who cope with social stress by engaging in self-blame or ruminating may exacerbate already existing feelings of social anxiety and thus may be at increased risk for later difficulties.

Finally, teachers rated socially anxious children as less academically skilled than nonanxious children, supporting pre-

M. Weeks et al. / Journal of Anxiety Disorders 23 (2009) 965–972970

vious research (e.g., Ialongo et al., 1995). Socially anxious children may actually exhibit poor academic performance as compared to nonanxious children. Of course, this might be due to an actual deficit in academic skill, as well as an inability to reach academic potential, because of a fear to participate in class (Coplan & Arbeau, 2008). Alternately, teachers may tend to perceive a lack of academic skill in socially anxious children because of a preexisting schema of how a ‘‘good’’ student should behave. Socially anxious children may tend to exhibit characteristics which do not fit with this schema, and may therefore be viewed as having less academic ability as a result. In support of this notion, Hughes, Coplan, Bosaki, and Rose-Krasnor (2009) recently reported that elementary school teachers rated shy students described in hypothetical vignettes as being less intelligent, having poorer academic skills, and having more learning difficulties than comparison and more ‘‘talkative’’ children.

Taken together, these results suggest that young socially anxious children are beginning to develop not only negative feelings, but maladaptive ways of coping with such feelings. Our findings suggest that socially anxious children are unhappy with their peer relations, and specifically that they are more likely than other children to feel lonely. They also seem to feel less positive about their experiences at school and seem to cope with stress mainly through worrying. In addition, socially anxious children are perceived as less academically skilled, perhaps because they are less willing to participate in class due to the combination of anxious feelings and a dislike for school.

Teacher perceptions. Although socially anxious children gen- erally self-report negative socio-emotional adjustment, fewer differences among anxious and nonanxious children were found for teacher ratings. This might be somewhat expected because of shared-method variance (i.e., stronger associations should be evident between self-reported social anxiety and other child self- report variables). However, teachers did not rate socially anxious children as being more anxious, more excluded by peers, or less prosocial than nonanxious children.

There is some evidence to suggest that teachers are indeed aware of anxiety symptoms among children in their class. For example, Layne, Bernstein, and March (2006) found that children who were identified as being more anxious by their teachers had higher levels of anxiety as compared to those children who were not rated as anxious. It is important to note the mean age of their sample was 8.7 years, which lends further support to the idea that social anxiety not only is salient at this age, but can also be reliably identified by an external source (e.g., teachers). However, it has also been argued that teachers are less accurate at assessing internalizing problems, particularly in early childhood (Rimm-Kaufman et al., 2002; Rimm-Kaufman & Kagan, 2005).

Notwithstanding, we found evidence of an incongruity between teacher ratings and self-reports of the socio-emotional adjustment of socially anxious children. Reasons for this incon- gruity are not clear, although there are at least two plausible explanations. First, socially anxious children may indeed be experiencing negative outcomes at school which teachers are unable to detect. If this is the case, there may be several subsequent explanations for why teachers are not noticing these outcomes. For instance, teachers may be unaware of subtle nuances of children’s peer relations as many important interac- tions are played out in the schoolyard (e.g., Ostrov & Crick, 2007), where teachers are much less likely to be present. Alternately, socially anxious children may not want teachers to know about their negative experiences, perhaps because they feel embar- rassed or ashamed. Indeed, some research suggests that anxious children often hide emotional problems around parents and teachers (e.g., Dadds, Perrin, & Yule, 1998; Pina, Silverman,

Saavedra, & Weems, 2001). Regardless, there are potentially important implications of teachers’ failure to detect such maladjustment. For example, teachers who are unaware of social anxiety among children in their class may be less likely to provide help and assistance to socially anxious children experiencing socio-emotional difficulties.

The second possibility is that socially anxious children are exhibiting cognitive distortions, whereby their experiences in the social context of school are negatively biased. This possibility is supported by the research suggesting that anxious children’s negative perceptions of their own social skills are not related to the perceptions of objective observers (e.g., Cartwright-Hutton et al., 2005). Indeed, individuals diagnosed anxiety disorders tend to exaggerate the severity of their social ineptitude (e.g., Eysenck, 1999). Moreover, anxiety disorders are often accompanied by heightened threat perception and biases in the subjective interpretations of social experiences (e.g., Alden, Taylor, Mellings, & Laposa, 2008; Bar-Haim, Lamy, Pergamin, Bakermans-Kranen- burg, & van IJzendoorn, 2007; Muris, Jacques, & Mayer, 2004). However, regardless of the ‘‘accuracy’’ of socially anxious children’s perceptions, their negative interpretation of their social circumstances provides yet another indicator of the need for early intervention.

7.3. Limitations and future directions

The current study provided some preliminary evidence of the utility of using the SASC-R in with younger children. However, our findings should be regarded as the ‘‘first step’’ in this process. For example, although the SASC-R was shown to have a conceptually interpretable factor structure and be internally consistent, the reliability of this measure (i.e., test–retest) still needs to be established. As well, we adapted the protocol for administering the SASC-R to be used as an interview assessment. Although this altered measure appeared to demonstrate comparable psycho- metric properties to the ‘‘pencil and paper’’ version — there may be subtle differences due to this alternate method of administering the test that should be explored further in subsequent research. Moreover, although theoretically consistent associations between social anxiety scores and other measures provided some evidence of the convergent validity of the SASC-R with this age group, additional assessments of validity are still required. For example, it would be helpful to also establish the discriminant validity of this measure by demonstrating stronger associations between the SASC-R and other assessments of social anxiety as compared to other anxiety problems (e.g., separation anxiety) and internalizing difficulties (i.e., depression).

Our results suggest that socially anxious children in an unselected sample are at increased risk for socio-emotional difficulties. Notwithstanding, the correlational nature of the data does not allow for conclusions regarding the causal links among variables. For example, it is possible that children who have experienced loneliness and school avoidance go on to report more social anxiety. Longitudinal research is needed in order to provide stronger support for the findings.

As well, as mentioned earlier, relations between children’s self- reports of social anxiety and adjustment outcomes were likely heightened because of shared-method variance. The use of additional sources of assessment (e.g., peer ratings, naturalistic observations) would help to clarify the nature of the ‘‘disconnect’’ between child self-reports and teacher ratings. However, previous research has suggested that child ratings of behavioral and emotional problems (including social anxiety) are often only modestly correlated to teacher and parent ratings (e.g., Cole, Hoffman, Tram, & Maxwell, 2000; Kristensen & Torgersen, 2006). This suggests that perhaps the differences between teacher and

M. Weeks et al. / Journal of Anxiety Disorders 23 (2009) 965–972 971

child ratings of adjustment outcomes cannot be explained fully by the particular measures used in the current study.

Regardless, the fact that socially anxious children are also reporting greater loneliness, more maladaptive social problem solving, and negative attitudes towards school should be concerning to parents and teachers. Ultimately, there should be a focus on helping teachers identify social anxiety in the classroom, as well as helping to reshape potential cognitive distortions of socially anxious children. Teachers can be taught to recognize the signs of underlying social anxiety and to look for potential adjustment problems in children who exhibit anxiety in the classroom. In order to help children, future research can focus on prevention programs by using the methods of cognitive behavior therapy, which involves the reevaluation of unhealthy cognitions.

The idea that cognitive distortions may shape the perceived maladjustment of socially anxious children deserves further investigation. Understanding the degree to which socially anxious children exaggerate their negative outcomes will help researchers to evaluate the relative importance of child reports versus reports from parents, teachers, and peers. Investigating this idea may also bring nonclinical social anxiety research into the realm of cognitive psychology and to broaden our understanding of how social anxiety affects the minds and behaviors of children.

The finding that teachers rated socially anxious children as less academically skilled also deserves further investigation. Future studies could include several measures of academic achievement in order to clarify whether socially anxious children are indeed demonstrating deficits in academic ability and performance, or whether teachers merely perceive these deficits in the absence of any actual school-related problems.

The issue of social anxiety in early childhood has largely been overshadowed by clinical research with adult populations. This research adds to the growing literature on childhood social anxiety, and highlights the importance of examining not only clinical populations of children, but also those children who are showing early signs of social anxiety. Our hope is that this research will add to the knowledge needed to develop effective home-based and school-based interventions for socially anxious children.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant to author Coplan. The authors wish to thank Kim Bowen, Kathleen Hughes, Lindsay McCullough, Christina Picket, Kim Rowan, and Jenna Robinson for their help in the collection and coding of data.

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