(PS5-55) The Role of Social Self-efficacy in the Relationship Between Behavioral Inhibition and Social Anxiety in Youth

Social anxiety is common among youth, impairing, and chronic when ineffectively treated, underscoring the need to understand risk-conferring mechanisms and optimal treatment targets. Behavioral inhibition is a well-established risk factor for social anxiety and other anxiety disorders. Prior work has also highlighted significant relations between social self-efficacy—the belief in one’s own ability to effectively relate to and get along with peers–and symptoms of social anxiety. Yet, the joint impact of these treatment-relevant constructs remains unexamined. Therefore, the present study explores the degree to which social self-efficacy may potentiate the relationship between behavioral inhibition and social anxiety symptoms.

We addressed these questions using a sample of 110 youth (63.6% female) ages 8 to 17 (M=12.83, SD=2.82) who self-reported their behavioral inhibition, self-efficacy, and anxiety using the Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire (BIQ), Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (SEQ) for Children, and Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED), respectively. Analyses used Pearson correlation and ordinary least squares linear regression. All models controlled for age and biological sex.

Correlation analyses showed that behavioral inhibition was significantly correlated with social self-efficacy (r=-.72, t(108)=-10.74, p< .001), social anxiety symptoms (r=.78, t(108)=12.93, p< .001), and sex (r=.21, t(108)=2.27, p=.03). Namely, behavioral inhibition was higher on average in girls (M=120.20) than boys (M=105.37). There was also a significant correlation between social self-efficacy and social anxiety symptoms (r=-.63, t(108)=-8.48, p< .001). Regression analyses revealed a main effect of behavioral inhibition (β=.72, t(104)=8.26, p< .001) and an interaction between behavioral inhibition and social self-efficacy in predicting social anxiety (β=-.18, t(104)=-2.90, p=.005). This interaction remained significant even when controlling for the effects of emotional and academic self-efficacy (β=-.18, t(102)=-3.00, p=0.003). Simple slopes analysis demonstrated that behavioral inhibition positively predicts social anxiety (ps >.05), and this relationship is strongest among children with low social self-efficacy (β=.89, t=7.56, p=.00) compared to children with average (β=-.18, t(104)=-2.90, p=.00) or high (β=.52, t=5.39, p=.00) social self-efficacy.

 
The present findings use a relatively under-studied measure—the SEQ—to examine the joint impact of social self-efficacy and behavioral inhibition on social anxiety symptoms. While both constructs’ relations to social anxiety have been examined individually, the present study is the first to explore their interaction. Social self-efficacy moderates the association between behavioral inhibition and social anxiety in youth. Self-efficacy is an important treatment target for youth experiencing anxiety symptoms. Taken together, these findings highlight the value of targeting social self-efficacy beliefs in behaviorally inhibited youth, as these beliefs may constitute an important mechanism through which exposure-based CBT interventions decrease social anxiety symptoms in youth.