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The Maintaining Factors of Social Anxiety: A Three-Group Comparison of a Clinical Sample with Highly Socially Anxious Students and Non-Anxious Students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2015

Sonja Skocic*
Affiliation:
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Henry Jackson
Affiliation:
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Carol Hulbert
Affiliation:
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Christina Faber
Affiliation:
The University of Melbourne, Australia
*
Reprint requests to Sonja Skocic, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, Redmond Barry Building, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia3010. E-mail: skocic.s@unimelb.edu.au

Abstract

Background: Clark and Wells' (1995) cognitive model of social anxiety (CWM) explains the maintenance of social anxiety and has been used as a guide for treatment of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). Few studies have examined the components of the model together across different samples. Aims: This study had two distinct aims: to test the components of CWM and to examine how the variables of CWM may differ between clinical and non-clinical samples with varying levels of social anxiety. Method: Hypothesized relationships between three groups (i.e. a clinical sample of individuals diagnosed with SAD (ClinS), n = 40; socially anxious students (HSA), n = 40; and, non-anxious students (LSA), n = 40) were investigated. Results: Four out of five CWM variables tested were able to distinguish between highly socially anxious and non-anxious groups after controlling for age and depression. Conclusions: CWM variables are able to distinguish between high and low levels of social anxiety and are uniquely related to social anxiety over depression.

Type
Empirically Grounded Clinical Interventions
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2015 

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