Social anxiety and social adaptation among adolescents at three age levels

The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between social anxiety and social adaptation among adolescents. This is the first study to research these parameters among three age groups: early, middle and late adolescence. On the whole, a negative relation was found between social anxiety and social adaptation. Specifically, for adolescents aged 12-13, social anxiety was positively associated with social rejection, and negatively associated with social acceptance and popularity. The same was true of adolescents aged 14-15, but the correlations were lower. For late adolescents (aged 17-18), social anxiety was not significantly correlated with any dimension of social adaptation. The results provide evidence that young adolescents (12-13) suffer from higher levels of social anxiety than their older counterparts. The relation found between social anxiety and social adaptation may indicate that high levels of social anxiety may cause intense distress, which can be expected to impair adolescents' social performance.