Multiple group memberships protect against anticipatory anxiety for social situations
Files
(Published version)
Date
2024
Authors
Donaldson, J.L.
Cruwys, T.
Dawel, A.
Chen, J.
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Journal article
Citation
Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 2024; 34(1):e2713-1-e2713-19
Statement of Responsibility
Jessica L. Donaldson, Tegan Cruwys, Amy Dawel, Junwen Chen
Conference Name
Abstract
For people with social anxiety, ongoing exposure to feared situations is crucial for both treatment and the prevention of relapse. The COVID-19 pandemic—with prolonged, often enforced, reductions in people's social contact—reduced such exposure and may thus have exacerbated social anxiety symptoms. In this three-wave longitudinal study (N = 212) we explored whether people's membership in multiple groups could protect against anticipatory anxiety for, and avoidance of, social situations. In line with our predictions, pre-pandemic multiple group memberships reduced anticipatory anxiety and avoidance at Waves 1 and 2 (June and August 2020). Controlling for participants' pre-pandemic multiple group memberships, maintained group memberships (from pre-pandemic to Wave 2) predicted lower Wave 2 anticipatory anxiety and avoidance, and lower Wave 2 anticipatory anxiety predicted reduced social anxiety symptoms at Wave 3. These findings are discussed with an emphasis on how social identity theorising and cognitive behavioural approaches to social anxiety can be successfully integrated.
School/Discipline
Dissertation Note
Provenance
Description
First published: 14 June 2023.
This article also appears in: 5th International Conference on Social Identity and Health
Access Status
Rights
© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.