Self-consciousness and social anxiety in youth: The Revised Self-Consciousness Scales for Children.

Abstract

Despite the established relationship between self-consciousness (SC) and anxiety and depression in adults, there is a paucity of research examining SC in children and adolescents. We therefore sought to examine the factor structure, reliability, and validity of scores for a revised version of the Self-Consciousness Scales for Children, a measure of SC in youth. The Revised Self-Consciousness Scale for Children (R-SCS-C) was examined in 2 studies using a community sample of children and adolescents. In the 1st study, 1,207 youth (685 girls) ages 7 to 18 completed the R-SCS-C as well as measures of imaginary audience, anxiety, depression, and positive and negative affect. Results of an exploratory factor analysis of the R-SCS-C conducted on a randomly selected subsample (n = 603) supported a 3-factor solution, including the subscales of Public Self-Consciousness, Private Self-Consciousness, and Social Anxiety. A subsequent confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) conducted on the remaining half of the sample (n = 604) revealed that this model fit the data well. Additionally, subsequent multigroup CFAs by gender and age demonstrated good model fit across both gender and younger (ages 7 to 12 years) and older (ages 13 to 18 years) cohorts. In the 2nd study, 245 youth completed the R-SCS-C twice, approximately 2 weeks apart. The R-SCS-C scores in these samples demonstrated acceptable internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity, and test-retest reliability. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Trait self-consciousness predicts amygdala activation and its functional brain connectivity during emotional suppression: an fMRI analysis

“…However, what the measure of trait anxiety or depression reflects is stable emotional state, not necessarily involving interpersonal or social relations. By contrast, the measure of self-consciousness is directly related to social emotions like social anxiety, embarrassment and shame 29, 30 , and individual differences in self-consciousness are directly related to the daily use of expressive suppression as observed in the present study (see Table 2). This might account for why self consciousness but not trait anxiety or depression is significantly related to the emotion regulation effect of expressive suppression in this study.…”

“…Clinically, people diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) or major depressive disorder (MDD) are both marked by dysfunctional emotion regulation 25–27 . The subdimension self-consciousness is akin to social anxiety 28, 29 , and it has been indicated that negative social emotions of shame and embarrassment form the central components of self-consciousness 30 . Individuals with high self-consciousness, as reflected by higher social anxiety, tend to have greater use of emotional expressive suppression as a way to avoid potential social rejection in comparison with those low in self-consciousness 31–33 .…”

Self-consciousness concept and assessment in self-report measures

“…Historically, the SCS was extended and later revised by Buss (1980) , Carver and Scheier (1981) , Pyszczynsky and Greenberg (1987) , and Grant (2001) . This Scale continues to be adapted for different populations, like the example of its recent version for use with children ( Takishima-Lacasa et al, 2014 ). It originally consists of 23 items measured on a five-point Likert scale, which were divided into three dimensions: Private Self-Consciousness (nine items, such as “I’m always trying to figure myself out”), Public Self-Consciousness (seven items, such as “I’m concerned about the way I present myself”), and Social Anxiety (six items, such as “I have trouble working when someone is watching me”).…”

The experience of the self in Canadian youth living with anxiety: A qualitative study

“…To our knowledge, only three studies have attempted to understand the attention given to self among youth living with anxiety. Takishima-Lacasa et al [30] considered the notion of self-consciousness in youth living with anxiety. Using the Self-Consciousness Scales among a school sample, they revealed that public self-consciousness (e.g., appearance, manners) and private self-consciousness (e.g., one's own feelings and beliefs) were significantly related to social anxiety in their participants.…”