Elsevier

Behavior Therapy

Volume 43, Issue 3, September 2012, Pages 619-628
Behavior Therapy

The Relationship Among Self-Efficacy, Negative Self-Referent Cognitions, and Social Anxiety in Children: A Multiple Mediator Model

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2011.11.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Evidence suggests that general self-efficacy, an individual's beliefs about his global abilities, and social self-efficacy, an individual's beliefs in his ability to navigate social situations, are strongly connected to levels of social anxiety. Negative self-statements, also known as negative self-referent cognitions, have also been linked with levels of social anxiety. Although self-efficacy and negative self-statements have been shown to be important variables in the phenomenology and maintenance of social anxiety in children, they have yet to be examined in conjunction with one another. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between negative self-referent cognitions and self-efficacy and to examine both general self-efficacy and social self-efficacy as mediator variables in the relationship between negative self-statements and social anxiety. Results were based on a sample of 126 children ages 11 to 14 years. A significant association between negative self-statements and both general self-efficacy and social self-efficacy was established. Results also indicated that general self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between negative self-statements and social anxiety; however, contrary to hypotheses, social self-efficacy did not mediate the relationship between negative self-statements and social anxiety. Implications and future recommendations are discussed.

Highlights

► Negative self-statements, general and social self-efficacy, and social anxiety are examined. ► A relationship between negative self-statements and self-efficacy was established. ► A multiple mediator model was significant. ► General self-efficacy mediated the relationship between negative self-statements and social anxiety. ► Social self-efficacy was not a significant mediator in the model.

Section snippets

Social anxiety

Social phobia (also known as social anxiety disorder) is a debilitating disorder that affects the lives of many children, adolescents, and adults. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR; APA, 2000), social phobia is characterized by an excessive or unreasonable, marked and persistent fear of social situations that invariably provokes an anxiety response and significantly interferes with the person's daily life. Prevalence rates for social phobia are

Participants

One hundred and thirty-nine participants ranging in age from 11 to 14 years were recruited from the middle school grades of a laboratory school affiliated with a university in the southern United States. Of those participants, 13 were excluded due to excessive missing data (> 10% of responses missing). For the remaining 126 participants mean imputation was used to account for any missing data. Participants were primarily Caucasian (82.5%) with 7.9% being African American, 1.6% being Asian, 1.6%

Preliminary analyses

Preliminary analyses were conducted to examine the effects of gender, age, and ethnicity on the key variables of social self-efficacy, general self-efficacy, number of negative self-statements, and social anxiety level. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant gender differences for general self-efficacy, F(1, 124) = 5.66, p < . 05, with girls reporting higher levels of general self-efficacy than boys. Therefore, gender was entered as a covariate for all subsequent analyses. No other

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among negative self-referent cognitions, self-efficacy, and social anxiety. A multiple mediator model was proposed in which general self-efficacy and social self-efficacy would mediate the relationship between negative self-statements and social anxiety. To establish the importance of each variable, each pair was first examined individually. As hypothesized, the variable negative self-statements was significantly associated with the

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  • Cited by (0)

    The authors would like to thank Johnny L. Matson Ph.D. for his contribution to the manuscript.

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