Psychology--Youth & Society, Örebro University, S-701 82 Örebro, Sweden.
J Pers. 2011 Jun;79(3):499-525. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2011.00682.x.
Socially anxious children and adolescents have previously been found to have friends with similarly socially anxious, withdrawn behavioral characteristics. How peers might socialize social anxiety over time has, however, not been thoroughly investigated. We examined this in a sample of 834 youths (339 girls and 495 boys; M=14.29), followed for 3 years. We used the social network analysis software SIENA to analyze the data. The results showed that youths who were socially anxious were less popular and chose fewer friends in the network. They also tended to choose friends who were socially anxious, and over time they influenced each other into becoming more socially anxious--over and above other effects. Finally, girls' social anxiety was more influenced than boys' by their friends' social anxiety levels. The results showed the significance of looking at socially anxious youths' friendships over time and embedded in social networks.
先前的研究发现，社交焦虑的儿童和青少年通常会有同样具有社交焦虑和内向行为特征的朋友。然而，同伴们是如何随着时间的推移来影响社交焦虑的，这一点尚未得到充分的研究。我们在一个由 834 名青少年（339 名女孩和 495 名男孩；M=14.29）组成的样本中进行了研究，对他们进行了为期 3 年的随访。我们使用社会网络分析软件 SIENA 来分析数据。结果表明，社交焦虑的青少年在网络中不太受欢迎，选择的朋友也较少。他们也倾向于选择同样具有社交焦虑的朋友，随着时间的推移，他们彼此影响，变得更加社交焦虑——这种影响超出了其他因素的影响。最后，女孩的社交焦虑比男孩更容易受到朋友社交焦虑水平的影响。研究结果表明，关注具有社交焦虑的青少年的友谊随着时间的推移以及嵌入在社交网络中是很重要的。
