Social Anxiety in Young Adults: A Comparative Analysis to Investigate the Impact of Perfectionism, Perceived Stress and Depression

Description

Page: 876-880

Tanisha Sankhyan¹ and Nitasha Khehra² (Department of Psychology, Panjab University Chandigarh¹ and Department of Psychology, Mehr Chand Mahajan DAV College for Women, Sector 36-A, Chandigarh²)

The present study aimed to conduct a comparative analysis of social anxiety among young adults and to examine its relationship with perfectionism, perceived stress and depression. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 150 female young adults in the age group 18 to 21 years. Social Phobia Inventory (Connor et al., 2000) was used to measure the severity of social anxiety. Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Hewitt & Flett, 1991), Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen et al., 1983), and Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, 1996) were used to assess the psychological correlates of social anxiety. Results of the present study indicated that 34.67% of the total sample experienced social anxiety. Socially anxious females scored significantly higher on self-oriented perfectionism and depression than non-socially anxious individuals. Correlation analysis revealed that social anxiety was positively related to self-oriented perfectionism, perceived stress, and depression among female young adults. Interestingly, a positive relationship was reported between perceived stress and socially prescribed perfectionism. In addition, depression was also positively related to socially prescribed perfectionism and perceived stress. Social phobia remains under-recognized in young adults and is a source of considerable distress, which warrants the need to explore specific areas of psychological dysfunction for planning effective treatment strategies.