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Psychopathology of Adolescent Social Phobia

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Abstract

Sixty-three adolescents with social phobia and 43 with no psychiatric disorders were compared across a number of clinical variables. In addition to clinically impairing social fear, adolescents with social phobia had significantly higher levels of loneliness, dysphoria, general emotional over-responsiveness and more internalizing behaviors than normal controls and 57.1% of socially phobic adolescents had a second, concurrent diagnosis, 75% of which were other anxiety disorders. In addition, adolescents with social phobia were significantly less socially skilled. Though similar in some respects to childhood social phobia, adolescent social phobia has a unique clinical presentation. The importance of developmental differences on the development of age-appropriate interventions is discussed.

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Acknowledgement

This research report was supported by funding from NIMH grant #MH60332 to the first, second, and fourth author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maryland Center for Anxiety Disorders, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Deborah C. Beidel, Samuel M. Turner & Brennan J. Young

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Robert T. Ammerman & Lori Crosby

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Floyd R. Sallee

  4. Penn State College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, H073, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA, 17033-0850, USA

    Deborah C. Beidel

Authors
  1. Deborah C. Beidel
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  2. Samuel M. Turner
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  3. Brennan J. Young
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  4. Robert T. Ammerman
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  5. Floyd R. Sallee
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  6. Lori Crosby
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Correspondence to Deborah C. Beidel.

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Beidel, D.C., Turner, S.M., Young, B.J. et al. Psychopathology of Adolescent Social Phobia. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 29, 46–53 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-006-9021-1

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