Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

More Likely to Have Risky Sex but less Sexually Satisfied: a Profile of High Social Interaction Anxiety, Urgency, and Emotion Dysregulation

  • Published:
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Social anxiety disorder is prevalent and negatively impacts adolescents and young adults. People with social interaction anxiety, a presentation category of social anxiety disorder pertaining to social relationships, tend to be more withdrawn, avoidant, and sexually dissatisfied. Some individuals with social interaction anxiety are more likely to engage in health-risk sexual behavior (HRSB), likely associated with individual differences. The present study used finite mixture modeling to discern profiles comprised of social interaction anxiety and individual differences previously associated with HRSB, replicating and extending previous findings (Rahm-Knigge et al. 2018). We also examined differences in sexual satisfaction among profiles. We replicated identifying two profiles high in social interaction anxiety that substantively differed in response to positive and negative emotions, emotion-regulation strategies, risk seeking, and non-acceptance of emotions. The profile high in social interaction anxiety and these individual differences was likelier to engage in HRSB than the other high social anxiety profile. Both high social interaction anxiety profiles were similarly low in sexual satisfaction. Despite differences in individual differences and engagement in HRSB, profiles high in social interaction anxiety reported similarly lower sexual satisfaction than the profiles low in social interaction anxiety.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aluja, A. (2004). Sensitivity to punishment, sensitivity to reward and sexuality in females. Personality and Individual Differences, 36(1), 5–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(02)00219-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

  • Bakk, Z., & Vermunt, J. K. (2016). Robustness of stepwise latent class modeling sith continuous distal outcomes. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 23(1), 20–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2014.955104.

  • Bancroft, J., & Vukadinovic, Z. (2003). Sexual risk-taking in gay men: The relevance of sexual Arousability, mood, and sensation seeking. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 18.

  • Brown, T. A., Chorpita, B. F., & Barlow, D. H. (1998). Structural relationships among dimensions of the DSM-IV anxiety and mood disorders and dimensions of negative affect, positive affect, and autonomic arousal. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107(2), 179–192.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carver, C. S., & White, T. L. (1994). Behavioral inhibition, behavioral activation, and affective responses to impending reward and punishment: The BIS/BAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(2), 319–333. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.2.319.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017a). Sexually transmitted disease surveillance 2016. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats16/CDC_2016_STDS_Report-for508WebSep21_2017_1644.pdf.

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017b, November). HIV surveillance report 2016. https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/pdf/library/reports/surveillance/cdc-hiv-surveillance-report-2016-vol-28.pdf

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018, June 14). Sexual Risk Behaviors: HIV, STD, & Teen Pregnancy Prevention. Adolescent and School Health. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/sexualbehaviors/

  • Charles, N. E., Ryan, S. R., Bray, B. C., Mathias, C. W., Acheson, A., & Dougherty, D. M. (2016). Altered developmental trajectories for impulsivity and sensation seeking among adolescent substance users. Addictive Behaviors, 60, 235–241.

  • Charnigo, R., Noar, S. M., Garnett, C., Crosby, R., Palmgreen, P., & Zimmerman, R. S. (2013). Sensation seeking and impulsivity: Combined associations with risky sexual behavior in a large sample of young adults. Journal of Sex Research, 50(5), 480–488. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2011.652264.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chorpita, B. F., Plummer, C. M., & Moffitt, C. E. (2000). Relations of tripartite dimensions of emotion to childhood anxiety and mood disorders. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 28(3), 299–310.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, D. M., & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In R. G. Heimberg, M. R. Liebowitz, D. A. Hope & F. R. Schneier (Eds.), Social phobia: Diagnosis, assessment, and treatment (pp. 69–93). New York: Guilford Press.

  • Conner, B.T. (2021). Re-operationalizing sensation seeking through the development of the sensation seeking personality trait scale. Manuscript submitted for review.

  • Corr, P. J. (2001). Testing problems in J A. Gray’s personality theory: A commentary on. Personality and Individual Differences, 30(2), 333–352. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00028-3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corr, P. J. (2002). J. a. Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory: Tests of the joint subsystems hypothesis of anxiety and impulsivity. Personality and Individual Differences, 33(4), 511–532. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(01)00170-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corr, P. J., & McNaughton, N. (2008). Reinforcement sensitivity theory and personality. In P. J. Corr (Ed.), The reinforcement sensitivity theory of personality (pp. 155–187). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Cyders, M. A., Smith, G. T., Spillane, N. S., Fischer, S., Annus, A. M., & Peterson, C. (2007). Integration of impulsivity and positive mood to predict risky behavior: Development and validation of a measure of positive urgency. Psychological Assessment, 19(1), 107–118. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.19.1.107.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • De Pascalis, V., Arwari, B., Matteucci, M., & Mazzocco, A. (2005). Effects of emotional visual stimuli on auditory information processing: A test of J.a. Gray’s reinforcement sensitivity theory. Personality and Individual Differences, 38(1), 163–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.03.017.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demianczyk, A. C., Jenkins, A. L., Henson, J. M., & Conner, B. T. (2014). Psychometric evaluation and revision of Carver and White’s BIS/BAS scales in a diverse sample of young adults. Journal of Personality Assessment, 96(5), 485–494. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2013.870570.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dosch, A., Rochat, L., Ghisletta, P., Favez, N., & Van der Linden, M. (2016). Psychological factors involved in sexual desire, sexual activity, and sexual satisfaction: A multi-factorial perspective. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 45(8), 2029–2045. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-014-0467-z.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Firth, D. (1993). Bias reduction of maximum likelihood estimates. Biometrika, 80(1), 27–38. JSTOR. https://doi.org/10.2307/2336755.

  • Gratz, K. L., & Roemer, L. (2004). Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: Development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in emotion regulation scale. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 26(1), 41–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gray, J. A. (1982). The neuropsychology of anxiety: An enquiry into the functions of the septo-hippocampal system. New York: Oxford University Press.

  • Gray, J. A. (1991). The neuropsychology of temperament. In J. Strelau & A. Angleitner (Eds.), Explorations in temperament: International perspectives on theory and measurement. (pp. 105–128). New York: Plenum.

  • Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion regulation: Current status and future prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2014.940781.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hackmann, A., Surawy, C., & Clark, D. M. (1998). Seeing yourself through others' eyes: A study of spontaneously occurring images in social phobia. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 26(1), 3–12.

  • Harden, K. P., & Tucker-Drob, E. M. (2011). Individual differences in the development of sensation seeking and impulsivity during adolescence: further evidence for a dual systems model. Developmental Psychology, 47(3), 739-746

  • Heinze, G., & Schemper, M. (2002). A solution to the problem of separation in logistic regression. Statistics in Medicine, 21(16), 2409-2419.

  • Heinze, G., & Ploner, M. (2018). Logistf: Firth’s Bias-reduced logistic regression. http://cemsiis.meduniwien.ac.at/en/kb/science-research/software/statistical-software/fllogistf/

  • Heinze, G., Ploner, M., Dunkler, D., Southworth, H. (2014). logistf: Firth’s Bias Reduced Logistic Regression, R package version 1.22; CRAN: Vienna, Austria.

  • Johnson, S. L., Turner, R. J., & Iwata, N. (2003). BIS/BAS levels and psychiatric disorder: An epidemiological study. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 12.

  • Jung, T., & Wickrama, K. A. S. (2008). An introduction to latent class growth analysis and growth mixture modeling. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(1), 302–317. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2007.00054.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kambouropoulos, N., & Staiger, P. K. (2004). Personality and responses to appetitive and aversive stimuli: The joint influence of behavioural approach and behavioural inhibition systems. Personality and Individual Differences, 37(6), 1153–1165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2003.11.019.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kashdan, T. B. (2004). The neglected relationship between social interaction anxiety and hedonic deficits: Differentiation from depressive symptoms. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 18(5), 719–730. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2003.08.001.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kashdan, T. B., Adams, L., Savostyanova, A., Ferssizidis, P., McKnight, P. E., & Nezlek, J. B. (2011a). Effects of social anxiety and depressive symptoms on the frequency and quality of sexual activity: A daily process approach. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 49(5), 352–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2011.03.004.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kashdan, T. B., Elhai, J. D., & Breen, W. E. (2008). Social anxiety and disinhibition: An analysis of curiosity and social rank appraisals, approach–avoidance conflicts, and disruptive risk-taking behavior. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 22(6), 925–939. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2007.09.009.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kashdan, T. B., & Hofmann, S. G. (2008). The high-novelty–seeking, impulsive subtype of generalized social anxiety disorder. Depression and Anxiety, 25(6), 535–541. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20382.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kashdan, T. B., & McKnight, P. E. (2010). The darker side of social anxiety: When aggressive impulsivity prevails over shy inhibition. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(1), 47–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721409359280.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kashdan, T. B., McKnight, P. E., Richey, J. A., & Hofmann, S. G. (2009). When social anxiety disorder co-exists with risk-prone, approach behavior: Investigating a neglected, meaningful subset of people in the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47(7), 559–568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2009.03.010.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kashdan, T. B., Weeks, J. W., & Savostyanova, A. A. (2011b). Whether, how, and when social anxiety shapes positive experiences and events: A self-regulatory framework and treatment implications. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(5), 786–799. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2011.03.012.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lanza S. T., Tan X., & Bray B. C. (2013). Latent class analysis with distal outcomes: A flexible model-based approach. Structural Equation Modeling, 20, 1–26.

  • Lo, Y., Mendell, N. R., & Rubin, D. B. (2001). Testing the number of components in a normal mixture. Biometrika, 88(3), 767-778.

  • Magid, V., MacLean, M. G., & Colder, C. R. (2007). Differentiating between sensation seeking and impulsivity through their mediated relations with alcohol use and problems. Addictive Behaviors, 32(10), 2046–2061.

  • Mattick, R. P., & Clarke, J. C. (1998). Development and validation of measures of social phobia scrutiny fear and social interaction anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36(4), 455–470.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McCarthy, D. E., Ebssa, L., Witkiewitz, K., & Shiffman, S. (2015). Paths to tobacco abstinence: A repeated-measures latent class analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 83(4), 696–708. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000017.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mokros, A., Hare, R. D., Neumann, C. S., Santtila, P., Habermeyer, E., & Nitschke, J. (2015). Variants of psychopathy in adult male offenders: A latent profile analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124(2), 372–386. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000042.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Montesi, J. L., Conner, B. T., Gordon, E. A., Fauber, R. L., Kim, K. H., & Heimberg, R. G. (2013). On the Relationship Among Social Anxiety, Intimacy, Sexual Communication, and Sexual Satisfaction in Young Couples. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42(1), 81–91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-9929-3

  • Muraven, M., Tice, D. M., & Baumeister, R. F. (1998). Self-control as a limited resource: Regulatory depletion patterns. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(3), 774–789.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998). Mplus User’s Guide (Eighth ed.). Los Angeles: Muthén & Muthén.

  • Nylund, K. L., Asparouhov, T., & Muthén, B. O. (2007). Deciding on the number of classes in latent class analysis and growth mixture modeling: A Monte Carlo simulation study. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14(4), 535–569. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510701575396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prince, M. A., O’Donnell, M. B., Stanley, L. R., & Swaim, R. C. (2019). Examination of recreational and spiritual peyote use among American Indian youth. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 80(3), 366–370.

  • Rahm-Knigge, R. L., Prince, M. A., & Conner, B. T. (2018). Social interaction anxiety and personality traits predicting engagement in health risk sexual behaviors. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 57, 57–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2018.05.002.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • RStudio Team. (2018). RStudio: Integrated development environment for R. RStudio, Inc. http://www.rstudio.com/

  • Safren, S. A., Heimberg, R. G., Brown, E. J., & Holle, C. (1996). Quality of life in social phobia. Depression and Anxiety, 4(3), 126–133. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6394(1996).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schneier, F. R., Heckelman, L. R., Garfinkel, R., Campeas, R., Fallon, B. A., Gitow, A., Street, L., Del Bene, D., & Liebowitz, M. R. (1994). Functional impairment in social phobia. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 55(8), 322–331.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz, G. (1978). Estimating the dimension of a model. The Annals of Statistics, 6(2), 461–464

  • Smillie, L. D., & Jackson, C. J. (2005). The appetitive motivation scale and other BAS measures in the prediction of approach and active avoidance. Personality and Individual Differences, 38(4), 981–994. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2004.09.013.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spokas, M., Luterek, J. A., & Heimberg, R. G. (2009). Social anxiety and emotional suppression: The mediating role of beliefs. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 40(2), 283–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2008.12.004.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stein, M. B., & Kean, Y. M. (2000). Disability and quality of life in social phobia: Epidemiologic findings. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157(10), 1606–1613.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Štulhofer, A., Buško, V., & Brouillard, P. (2010). Development and bicultural validation of the new sexual satisfaction scale. Journal of Sex Research, 47(4), 257–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490903100561.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Turk, C. L., Heimberg, R. G., Luterek, J. A., Mennin, D. S., & Fresco, D. M. (2005). Emotion Dysregulation in generalized anxiety disorder: A comparison with social anxiety disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29(1), 89–106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-005-1651-1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vermunt, J. K. (2010). Latent class modeling with covariates: Two improved three-step approaches. Political Analysis, 18(4), 450–469. https://doi.org/10.1093/pan/mpq025.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vohs, K. D., Baumeister, R. F., & Ciarocco, N. J. (2005). Self-regulation and self-presentation: Regulatory resource depletion impairs impression management and effortful self-presentation depletes regulatory resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(4), 632–657. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.88.4.632.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Carey, G. (1988). Positive and negative affectivity and their relation to anxiety and depressive disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 97(3), 346–353.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wells, A., & Papageorgiou, C. (1999). The observer perspective: Biased imagery in social phobia, agoraphobia, and blood/injury phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37(7), 653–658. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0005-7967(98)00150-8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Whiteside, S. P., & Lynam, D. R. (2001). The five factor model and impulsivity: Using a structural model of personality to understand impulsivity. Personality and Individual Differences, 30(4), 669–689. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00064-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zuckerman, M. (1994). Behavioral expressions and biosocial bases of sensation seeking. Cambridge University Press.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, 1876 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    Ryan L. Rahm-Knigge, Mark A. Prince & Bradley T. Conner

Authors
  1. Ryan L. Rahm-Knigge
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mark A. Prince
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Bradley T. Conner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ryan L. Rahm-Knigge.

Ethics declarations

Informed Consent

All participants provided informed consent to participate and were provided with debriefing information at the end of the study.

Research Involving Human Participants and/or Animals

The current study was approved by the Colorado State University Institutional Review Board (“Behavioral Assessment of Sensation Seeking,” study number 068-17H).

Conflict of Interest

Ryan L. Rahm-Knigge, Mark A. Prince and Bradley T. Conner have no conflicts of interest to report.

Experiment Participants

No experimental procedures were performed on animals or humans in this study.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Rahm-Knigge, R.L., Prince, M.A. & Conner, B.T. More Likely to Have Risky Sex but less Sexually Satisfied: a Profile of High Social Interaction Anxiety, Urgency, and Emotion Dysregulation. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 43, 890–903 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-021-09889-w

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-021-09889-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation