(PS9-B47) Social Evaluation in Emerging Adults: Associations with Social Anxiety, Interpretation Bias, and Perceived Social Support

Social anxiety (SA) is a common mental health concern, with 13% of the population meeting for a lifetime diagnosis (Kessler et al., 2005; Bandelow & Michaelis, 2015). Emerging adulthood may represent a crucial window for understanding SA as individuals gain independence from caregivers and navigate new social situations. Two processes that may underlie SA are interpretation bias and perceived social support. Interpretation bias (IB) is the tendency to appraise threat from ambiguity (Amir, Beard, & Bower, 2005; Rozenman, Gonzalez, Logan, & Goger, 2020); higher IB is linked to more SA symptoms (Miers, Sumter, Clark, & Leigh, 2020; Mathews & Mackintosh, 2000). Perceived social support (PSS) is the “perception that one is cared for and esteemed” (Taylor, 2011) and is negatively associated with SA (Coyle & Malecki, 2018; Barnett, Maciel, Johnson, & Ciepluch, 2021). It is yet unclear whether and what associations IB (an uncontrolled cognitive process) and PSS (a controlled process) have with SA in emerging adults during social interaction. As IB can be targeted during cognitive bias intervention, and PSS targeted through cognitive and behavioral interventions, identifying which targets are associated with SA during social feedback may be helpful.

The present study tests 1) whether the experience of acceptance or rejection during social evaluation (henceforth referred to as “group”) moderates change in SA pre-to-post-evaluation, and 2) whether baseline PSS or IB influence the the relationship between acceptance/rejection and anxiety symptom change. Data collection is ongoing. To date, 267 (intended N=275) emerging adults ages 18 to 25 (M=19.33, SD=1.39; 73% female, 80% White, 12% Hispanic/Latinx) took part in an online study. Participants first complete a performance-based IB assessment, the Word Sentence Association Paradigm (Beard & Amir, 2008; Rozenman, Gonzalez, Logan, & Goger, 2020) and questionnaires for anxiety (Screen for Adult Anxiety Related Disorders (SCAARED; Angulo et al., 2017) and PSS (Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support; Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988). Next, participants complete the Chatroom task, a paradigm that participants believe is a real online social interaction (Guyer et al., 2008); participants are randomly assigned to either accept (n=134) or reject (n=133) conditions. Anxiety and PSS self-reports are then repeated.
Preliminary analyses: groups did not significantly differ by total anxiety symptoms (t(265)=-1.38, p=0.17) or SA symptoms specifically (t(265)=-1.51, p=.13) before social evaluation. Controlling for other anxiety symptoms, there was no group (accept, reject) x SA interaction (F(1, 264)=.82, p=.37) but there was a main effect of SA; on average participants in both groups appeared to have a decrease in SA from pre-to-post Chatroom task (Mean diff=0.29, SE=.09, p=.001). A similar pattern emerged for total anxiety.
Final analyses will investigate whether baseline PSS or IB influence the relationship between social acceptance/rejection and change in SA symptoms. Results may have implications for our understanding of how cognitive factors may influence anxiety in the context of social evaluation.