Social anxiety and coping strategies among young adults

Abstract

Anxiety is a form or a state of condition which encompasses fear, apprehension, nervousness and worrying in an individual (Crosta, 2009). Every day we use different coping mechanisms to overcome the various anxieties that we face. Individuals engage in coping when they feel under stress or want to manage a taxing situation. The principle purpose of this study is to find the dynamic differences in coping strategies among young adults high in social anxiety and young adults low in social anxiety. Participants completed the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale(1987) (Appendix C) and the Coping Strategies Inventory(1984, 2001). The study was conducted on a student population of 130 students from different universities around Mysore and Bangalore between the age group of 18–24 years. The results of the study show that there is a significant difference in self-criticism among young adults high in social anxiety and young adults low in social anxiety. It is seen that high social anxiety leads to individuals adopting self-criticism as one of the coping strategies very often. Whereas it was seen that there was no significant difference in the other coping strategies like problem solving, social withdrawal, expressing emotions, social support, cognitive restructuring, wishful thinking and problem avoidance.