Social cognition and social anxiety among Icelandic schoolchildren

The primary purpose of this study is to examine relationships among social cognition, social anxiety, and social skills with friends and strangers in children. Ninety-two children (age 10-14 years) in Iceland completed questionnaires on social anxiety, social skills, assertiveness, self-efficacy, and outcome expectancy in social situations with friends and strangers. Children reported higher self-efficacy, more positive outcome expectancies, and higher assertion when interacting with friends than strangers. Results also indicate that self-efficacy with friends and self-efficacy with strangers significantly predicted social anxiety. Self-efficacy with friends (but not strangers) also predicted social skills as reported by the children and their parents. On the other hand, self-efficacy with strangers predicted assertiveness with strangers. Outcome expectancy with friends also contributed to the prediction of self reported and parent-reported social skills. Findings are discussed with regard to the importance of social cognition for the development of social anxiety and social skills.