I have recently been reading through a couple of peer-reviewed articles in my
research of the impact that anxiety has on friendships. I have come across two
articles in relation to this and would like to share my findings with you. In the
Social Anxiety, Cortisol, and Early-Stage Friendship article, the research question
they focused on in this study was: how does social anxiety impact cortisol
reactivity, feelings of closeness or desired closeness during an interaction with a
potential new friend? (Ketay et al., 2019). The sample size of this study included
one-hundred sixty-eight participants (2019). The variables of interest were cortisol
levels, self-disclosure and social anxiety (2019). The statistical tests used
included: intra-class correlation coefficients and a linear regression analysis
(2019). In this study it was concluded that in the high self-disclosure condition,
the individuals who were higher in social anxiety displayed flatter declines in
cortisol than those lower in social anxiety; cortisol declines were not significantly
related to social anxiety in the low self-disclosure condition. Further, across both
conditions, an individual's social anxiety was associated with decreased levels of
closeness and desired closeness (2019).
In the second article, Social Anxiety Disorder and Social Support Behavior in
Friendships the research question was: what is the relationship between social
anxiety disorder and social support behaviors when it comes to friendships?
(Piccirillo et al., 2021). The sample size for this study was one-hundred and eighty
participants (2021). Variables of interest included: social anxiety status (Social
anxiety disorder, no social anxiety), depression, and friendship (2021). The
statistical tests used in this study were: Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Bayesian
statistics (2021). It was concluded that having a Social Anxiety Disorder alone
does not correlate with interpersonal impairment, but Social Anxiety status,
depression, and their interaction significantly impacted positive support behaviors
(2021). In a way, these two articles are contradicting. In the first article, it is
shown that those who have a high level of anxiety can have an impact on their
friendships (Ketay et al.m 2019). Furthermore, it was also shown that overall,
social anxiety has a negative impact on closeness one feels in a social
interaction; which can negatively affect a potential friendship (2019). In the
second article, it was concluded that having social anxiety alone does not have a
direct negative impact on friendships (Piccirillo et al., 2021).
d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d References
Ketay, S., Welker, K. M., Beck, L. A., Thorson, K. R., & Slatcher, R. B. (2019). Social
anxiety,
cortisol, and early-stage friendship. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships,
36(7),
1954–1974. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407518774915
Piccirillo, M. L., Lim, M. H., Fernandez, K. A., Pasch, L. A., & Rodebaugh, T. L.
(2021). Social
anxiety disorder and social support behavior in friendships. Behavior Therapy,
52(3),
720–733. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2020.09.003
