Examining Social Anxiety Among Adolescents in Accordance with Coping with Stress Approaches

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to find out whether there is a significant correlation between university students’ social anxiety and their coping with stress styles, and whether coping with stress styles predict social anxiety at a significant level. The findings of the study show that there are significant negative correlations between self confident and optimistic approaches to coping with stress and social anxiety and its sub-scales of social avoidance/shyness, low self appraisal and expectancy of criticism by others and that there are positive correlations between social anxiety and following helpless, submissive approaches and receiving social support. It has also been observed that different styles of coping with stress explain social avoidance, expectancy of criticism by others and lack of self-value subscales of social anxiety.