A study on adolescents level of social anxiety, parental attitude and the type of risk factors taking place in the families

Abstract A Study on Adolescents' Level of Social Anxiety,Parental Attitude and The Type of Risk Factors Taking Place in the Families Zfilal ERKAN Ph.D.Thesis, Education Science Department Supervisor: Doç.Dr. Sonay GÜÇRAY June, 2002, 140 pages In this study whether the level of social anxiety ( the fear of negative evaluation, social avoidance and distress) of the adolescent students vary according to parental attitude and gender, the type of risk factors that take place in the families of the students whose social anxiety is high and the students whose social anxiety is low, and how these students describe the parental attitude of their parents have been observed. The sample of this research consists of 782 students taken from official general high schools in Adana and İçel. In this study, quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques were used together. In this study, the scales of Fear of Negative Evaluation-FNE and Social Avoidance and Distress- SAD (Watson and Friend, 1966) have been used for the social anxiety level of the students; Parents attitude Envantories (Eldeleklioğlu,1996), family risk factors Questionarie, semi structured interview techniques have been used. In the analysis of quantitative data, the multiple variance analysis technique and Scheffe-F test, x2 independence test and for the independent groups the ratio test (z) have been used. An interview was hold with 12 students, 6 with high level of social anxiety and 6 with low level of social anxiety, using semi structured interview techniques to findout what the risk factors taking place in the families are and how they describe their parents' attitude. According to results, the main effects of the parents' attitude on the FNE and SAD scale points have been found significant. The students who have protective-demanding and authoritative parental attitude have been observed to have taken high points from the FNE and SAD scales, the students who have democratic parental attitude have been observed to have laken low points.The common effect of the parental attitude and gender distinctionvariations on the points of FNE and SAD scales have not been found significant It has been observed that divorce, the number of the family members, educational background of the parents, the income of the family, the family's paticipation in the social activities are risk factors, m terms of social anxiety. According to the result of the content analysis obtained from the qualitative data, it has been observed mat the frequency of the democratic attitudes in the families of the students with high level of social anxiety is low and the frequency of protective- demanding and authoritative parental attitudes is high.lt has also been observed that in the families of students with low level of social anxiety, the frequency of these students' meeting democratic parental attitudes is high and the frequency of these students' meeting protective-demanding and authoritative parental attitude is low. Furthermore, the existence of unstable and indifferent parental attitude has been noticed. All the students interviewed state the risk factors taking place in their families as, " the loss of brother or sister, the chronical illness that one of the family members has economical problems, the gap between the educational level of the parents, the descord of parents, Father's addiction to alcohol, living in a small town, the authoritative and protective-demanding, parental attitude, living with an elder member of the family". Key Words; Social Anxiety; Fear of Negative Evaluation; Social Avoidance and Distress; Parental Attitude and Family Risk Factors.