Introduction Current status of research on social anxiety and relationship with psychoeducational variables: An international perspective

Abstract

Social anxiety, and its most extreme condition, social anxiety disorder, is a common international problem today. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has brought relief, at least temporarily, to many social anxiety sufferers. The decrease in face-to-face social interactions and the use of face masks have reduced the usually daily discomfort of those interactions. But it has also frozen in time the practice of their social skills and served as a safe refuge from experiencing the daily symptoms of social anxiety so often. We can say, therefore, that the pandemic has served as a reinforcement of social withdrawal behaviors for people with social anxiety, both in children and in adolescents and adults.