Department of Psychology and Centre for Mental Health Research and Treatment, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave W, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
Department of Psychology and Centre for Mental Health Research and Treatment, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave W, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
J Anxiety Disord. 2021 May;80:102387. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2021.102387. Epub 2021 Mar 22.
Why do people with social anxiety disorder (SAD) engage in the use of safety behaviours? While past research has established that fears of negative self-portrayal are strongly associated with safety behaviour use in SAD, no research to date has investigated the potential role of fears of receiving compassion. Both types of fears could motivate those with SAD to engage in safety behaviours in order to keep others at a distance. In the present study, 150 participants with a clinical diagnosis of SAD completed measures of fears of negative self-portrayal, fears of receiving compassion, and safety behaviour use. Multiple regression analyses revealed that when controlling for self-portrayal fears, fears of receiving compassion significantly predicted increased use of safety behaviours overall, as well as the use of avoidance and impression management subtypes. Furthermore, there was a significant interaction effect in which greater fears of receiving compassion predicted greater use of impression management at lower levels of self-portrayal fears. We discuss the implications of our findings for addressing safety behaviours in the treatment of SAD.
为什么患有社交焦虑症（SAD）的人会使用安全行为？虽然过去的研究已经确定对负面自我形象的恐惧与 SAD 中安全行为的使用密切相关，但迄今为止尚无研究调查对收到同情的恐惧的潜在作用。这两种恐惧都可能促使患有 SAD 的人使用安全行为来与他人保持距离。在本研究中，150 名患有 SAD 临床诊断的参与者完成了对负面自我形象恐惧、对收到同情恐惧以及安全行为使用的测量。多元回归分析显示，当控制自我形象恐惧时，对收到同情的恐惧显著预测了安全行为的总体使用增加，以及回避和印象管理亚型的使用增加。此外，还存在一个显著的交互作用，其中对收到同情的更大恐惧预测了在自我形象恐惧较低水平时对印象管理的更大使用。我们讨论了我们的研究结果对治疗 SAD 中安全行为的意义。
