Investigating the role of social communication problems in the understanding and treatment of adolescents with social anxiety

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) in adolescents is associated with significant impairment in functioning and debilitating long-term consequences. Onset of the disorder is typically in young adolescence. Evidence suggests that young people with SAD have deficits in social competence, and there is preliminary evidence to suggest poorer mental state reasoning (MSR), although well-controlled studies focussing on adolescents are scarce. Social skills training (SST) is a component of several treatments for SAD, but the effectiveness of SST is unclear. The review paper summarises the evidence base for social skill (SS) deficits in adolescent SAD, critically evaluates the literature on SST, and highlights similarities and differences between the currently employed treatment protocols. The review concluded that there is significant overlap in the SS deficits that existing treatments target; however, there is also a wide variation in the assessment of SS. In the studies that measured SS, results suggest that SST is an effective treatment for improving SS in adolescents with SAD, although follow up data are limited. The empirical paper investigates social competence and MSR in a sample of typically-developing adolescents aged 11 to 16. A large number of adolescents were screened for social anxiety and experimental groups of high (HSA) and low (LSA) levels of symptoms were formed. Participants completed experimental testing, and parent-report measures were obtained.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo