Social phobia and perceptions of early parental and personal characteristics

Abstract

Research on the etiology of social phobia is virtually nonexistent in part because relevant theories about family and childhood antecedents have not been advanced. The present study was designed to assess the relevance of Buss' (1980) formulations regarding antecedents of social evaluative fears for understanding the development of social phobia. Social phobic patients' perceptions of early parental and childhood characteristics presumed to be associated with social evaluative concerns were compared to those of agoraphobic patients. Social phobics perceived their mothers as more avoidant of social phobic situations, their parents as seeking to isolate them, their parents as overemphasizing the opinions of others, and their parents as deemphasizing family sociability. Social phobics also reported greater self-consciousness and fewer dating partners during adolescence. A discriminant function analysis revealed that these criterion variables accurately classified 91% of social phobics and 77.3% of agoraphobics.