What are they worried about? A qualitative exploration of negative beliefs in Chinese socially anxious youths.

BACKGROUND

Socially anxious individuals hold a variety of maladaptive negative beliefs. Currently, there is a lack of detailed bottom-up research on the beliefs of socially anxious young adults in East Asia. This study focuses on Chinese youths with social anxiety, aiming to explore the negative beliefs related to social anxiety using qualitative methods.

METHODS

Thirty-four college students with significant social anxiety symptoms were recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews, and data was analyzed using thematic analysis.

RESULTS

We identified seven themes of negative beliefs, which were negative self-perceptions, perceived negative evaluations from others, perceived poor social skills, high estimated social cost, perceived strict social interaction norms, perceived visibility of physical and behavioral symptoms, and perceived poor control capability.

CONCLUSION

Socially anxious individuals generally hold negative beliefs. These beliefs help us to better understand the development and maintenance of social anxiety among Chinese youths. Future research should further investigate whether these beliefs are also prevalent in other East Asian countries or regions.