Relationship between youth and parent perceptions of family environment and social anxiety

This study concurrently examined the relationship between adolescents' perceptions of their parents' child-rearing styles and family environment and their reports of social anxiety. Adolescents reporting higher levels of social anxiety perceived their parents as being more socially isolating, overly concerned about others' opinions, ashamed of their shyness and poor performance, and less socially active than did youth reporting lower levels of social anxiety. Parent perceptions of child-rearing styles and family environment, however, did not differ between parents of socially anxious and nonsocially anxious adolescents. Results are comparable to studies using adult retrospective reports and are discussed with regard to the role of the family environment in the development of social anxiety. Copyright (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.