Gender and Age Differences in Social Anxiety in Adolescence

Subject Areas : روان درمانگری

Fariborz Geravand ¹ , Mohammad Hassan Afzali ² , Omid Shokri ³ , Melita Puklek ⁴ , Ali Khodaei ⁵ , Saeed Toulabi ⁶

1 - MA in Educational Psychology
2 - MA in General Psychology
3 - PhD Shahid Beheshti University
4 - PhD University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
5 - Payme Noor University Kordestan - Iran
6 - MA in Educational Psychogy

Received: 2015-06-03 Accepted : 2015-06-03 Published : 2010-12-22

Keywords: social anxiety, adolescent development, gender and age differences,

Abstract :

the development of cognitive and behavioral dimensions of social anxiety during adolescence was studied. Using multistage random sampling method, 276 female and 224 male students in Tehran were selected from three age groups of 12-13 years, 14-15 years and 16-17 years old and were administered the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (Puklek, 1997). Results of MANOVA suggested that 12-13 years old adolescents had higher means in the cognitive and behavioral dimensions of social anxiety than the other two age groups. Females had higher means in the behavioral dimension of social anxiety in all three age groups, whereas there were no gender differences in the cognitive dimenstion of social anxiety. Findings are discussed based on Elkind's socio-cognitive perspective and the effect of gender on socialization.