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The Prevalence of Adolescent Social Fears and Social Anxiety Disorder in School Contexts

Social fears arise when fearing to be judged in social events. When these fears are intense, persistent, and debilitating, the individual may suffer from social anxiety disorder (SAD), which has its most frequent onset during adolescence and tends to be chronic. Still, evidence on the prevalence of...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Alves, Francisca, Figueiredo, Diana Vieira, Vagos, Paula
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9566153/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36231757
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912458
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author Alves, Francisca
Figueiredo, Diana Vieira
Vagos, Paula
author_facet Alves, Francisca
Figueiredo, Diana Vieira
Vagos, Paula
author_sort Alves, Francisca
collection PubMed
description Social fears arise when fearing to be judged in social events. When these fears are intense, persistent, and debilitating, the individual may suffer from social anxiety disorder (SAD), which has its most frequent onset during adolescence and tends to be chronic. Still, evidence on the prevalence of social fears and SAD in adolescence is scarce. This study analyzed the prevalence of social fears and of SAD in Portuguese adolescents. Of the initial sample (n = 1495), 26% presented with intense self-reported social fears. Of those, 53.9% accepted to be further assessed for diagnosis, resulting in a point-estimate prevalence of adolescent SAD of 9.4%; this is slightly higher than previously found. Social performance was the most feared social event. Of the adolescents with SAD, 12.9% were receiving psychological intervention, 12.1% refused intervention, and 92 (65.7%) accepted intervention. Findings confirm SAD as a highly prevalent mental disorder among adolescents, particularly girls, and additionally, that most of these adolescents did not seek treatment but are willing to receive help if made available. Hence, schools should be invested not only in identifying vulnerable adolescents but also in providing diverse intervention options, tailored to their needs, and directing them to successful developmental trajectories.
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spelling pubmed-95661532022-10-15 The Prevalence of Adolescent Social Fears and Social Anxiety Disorder in School Contexts Alves, Francisca Figueiredo, Diana Vieira Vagos, Paula Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Social fears arise when fearing to be judged in social events. When these fears are intense, persistent, and debilitating, the individual may suffer from social anxiety disorder (SAD), which has its most frequent onset during adolescence and tends to be chronic. Still, evidence on the prevalence of social fears and SAD in adolescence is scarce. This study analyzed the prevalence of social fears and of SAD in Portuguese adolescents. Of the initial sample (n = 1495), 26% presented with intense self-reported social fears. Of those, 53.9% accepted to be further assessed for diagnosis, resulting in a point-estimate prevalence of adolescent SAD of 9.4%; this is slightly higher than previously found. Social performance was the most feared social event. Of the adolescents with SAD, 12.9% were receiving psychological intervention, 12.1% refused intervention, and 92 (65.7%) accepted intervention. Findings confirm SAD as a highly prevalent mental disorder among adolescents, particularly girls, and additionally, that most of these adolescents did not seek treatment but are willing to receive help if made available. Hence, schools should be invested not only in identifying vulnerable adolescents but also in providing diverse intervention options, tailored to their needs, and directing them to successful developmental trajectories. MDPI 2022-09-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9566153/ /pubmed/36231757 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912458 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Alves, Francisca
Figueiredo, Diana Vieira
Vagos, Paula
The Prevalence of Adolescent Social Fears and Social Anxiety Disorder in School Contexts
title The Prevalence of Adolescent Social Fears and Social Anxiety Disorder in School Contexts
title_full The Prevalence of Adolescent Social Fears and Social Anxiety Disorder in School Contexts
title_fullStr The Prevalence of Adolescent Social Fears and Social Anxiety Disorder in School Contexts
title_full_unstemmed The Prevalence of Adolescent Social Fears and Social Anxiety Disorder in School Contexts
title_short The Prevalence of Adolescent Social Fears and Social Anxiety Disorder in School Contexts
title_sort prevalence of adolescent social fears and social anxiety disorder in school contexts
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9566153/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36231757
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191912458
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