(PS9-A10) The Influence of Childhood Emotional Maltreatment and Exclusion on Distress Among Individuals with Social Anxiety Symptoms

Background

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a pervasive psychological condition affecting emerging adults (Ruscio et al., 2008). Previous literature has demonstrated the importance of biological influences, psychological vulnerabilities, negative parenting practices, peer victimization experiences, and trauma/adversity in the development of SAD (Spence & Rapee, 2016). One unique adverse experience is childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM) or parent-based emotional abuse and/or neglect. CEM has been associated with more severe and persistent SA symptoms in adults (Gren-Landell et al., 2011). Currently, there is no work examining the impact of early CEM experiences on distress caused by adult peer exclusion (i.e., social pain) among socially anxious college students. Therefore, the current study aims to examine the role of CEM experiences in distress resulting from social exclusion among emerging adults with elevated SA symptoms. We hypothesized that greater intensity CEM experiences will be associated with greater distress associated with social exclusion. 

Methods

As of March 2022, 25.4% (n = 28, M_age = 19.43, SD = 2.33) of N = 110 were collected. Data collection is projected to be completed in May 2022. Participants complete self-report measures of CEM (Child Trauma Questionnaire-Short form; Berstein et al. 2003), social pain (Needs Threat Scale; van Beest & Willams, 2006), and social anxiety (Social Phobia Inventory; Connor et al., 2000). To evaluate the impact of distress associated with social exclusion, participants complete the Cyberball, a social exclusion task (Williams & Jarvis, 2006). Cyberball has been shown to demonstrate greater ostracism distress among individuals with SAD compared to healthy individuals (Fung & Alden, 2017).

Results

Preliminary findings revealed that 23.1% of participants endorsed experiencing moderate to severe emotional abuse and 23.1 % of participants endorsed experiencing moderate to severe emotional neglect. Following data collection, bivariate correlations will be conducted to between CEM experiences, social exclusion, and post-Cyberball social pain. To test the hypothesis, hierarchical regression analyses will be conducted to test CEM experiences as a predictor of social pain, after controlling for baseline social pain and female sex.  Our preliminary findings suggest greater emotional abuse (r = -.645, p = .001) and emotional neglect (r = -.526, p = .008) were significantly associated with greater baseline social pain (i.e., lower total Needs Threat scores indicate greater social pain).

Discussion

The results will be discussed in terms of contributing to the literature on factors contributing to greater distress among vulnerable young adults with social anxiety. Specifically, the findings have the potential to further inform our understanding of social pain in SAD. In addition, during the COVID-19 crisis, greater SA symptoms were associated with greater fear of COVID-19 (nath Samantaray, Kar, & Mishra, 2022) and the student population demonstrated greater social anxiety during lockdown period (Kar et al., 2021). Consequently, results of the study could potentially help identify students with vulnerability to social anxiety during periods of crisis and social isolation.