An Exploratory Study to assess Social Anxiety among Adolescents Studying in Higher Secondary Schools of Pune City

Background: Adolescence is a period of transition during which many adolescents are sensitive of how others see them and react to them, and this awareness makes them feel apprehensive and socially anxious. Social anxiety in adolescents is manifested by anxiety about and avoidance of social interactions, often linked to negative outcomes from social interactions. It thereby leads to stage fear, poor academic performance and low self esteem accompanied by problems in cognition and behavior. Various aspects like school and family environment also impact the occurrence of social anxiety due to which the adolescent often remains in background without being much understood.

Objectives: To assess the level of social anxiety among adolescents and to correlate social anxiety with the selected socio- demographic variables.

Design: A descriptive research design was adopted for the study.

Setting: Higher secondary schools, Pune city.

Participants: 210 adolescents including both boys and girls fulfilling the inclusion criteria were selected by stratified random sampling technique.

Methods: All participants were given a questionnaire related to demographic data, two checklists regarding the home and school environment and a rating scale to assess the level of social anxiety.

Results: The findings revealed that 99 (47.14%) adolescents have mild social anxiety, 88 (41.90%) have no social anxiety, 23 (10.95%) have moderate social anxiety and none have severe social anxiety. In the study 122 (58.10%) adolescents have an average home environment, 86 (40.95%) have good home environment and 2 (0.95%) have poor home environment. Results also denoted that 178 (84.76%) adolescents have an average school environment, 27 (12.86%) have good school environment and 5 (2.38%) have a poor school environment. There was a significant correlation between social anxiety and most enjoyable place (P < 0.05), as adolescents who stated that home was the most enjoyable place for them, had more social anxiety since they avoided going out and interacting with others. A highly significant correlation was derived between social anxiety and father's education (P < 0.001), as adolescent whose father was an illiterate had more social anxiety. There was a significant correlation between social anxiety and mother's education (P < 0.05). The adolescents whose parents had a low family monthly income also exhibited a significant correlation with the social anxiety (P < 0.01).

Conclusion: The factors like most enjoyable place, parent's education and family monthly income highly influence the social anxiety in adolescents.