Social Anxiety Profiles and Psychopathological Symptom Differences in Spanish Adolescents

Research on social anxiety (SA) over the years has revealed its associations with different psychopathological symptoms. This study aims to characterize SA profiles in a sample of Spanish adolescents and explore their differences in psychopathological symptoms. Data from 1,288 Spanish students in the 15 to 18 age range (M = 16.30, SD = 0.97, 47.5% female) were collected using random cluster sampling. The Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) and the Symptom Assessment-45 Questionnaire (SA-45) were employed. Four SA profiles were revealed by the Latent Profile Analysis (LPA): extreme SA, high SA, moderate SA, and low SA. Statistically significant differences in psychopathological symptoms were revealed by the MANOVA (effect sizes from d = -2.13 to d = -0.37). The extreme SA profile exhibited the most severe psychopathological symptoms, whereas the low SA profile displayed the mildest manifestations. Proposed interventions aim to support adolescents with SA risk profiles.