Underlying Fear of Embarrassment and Judgment
Children with social anxiety disorder have extreme and persistent anxiety in certain social or public situations. They are scared that they will do something embarrassing or people will think very negatively about them. The fear can even reach the point of panic. Social Anxiety is probably the most frequent kind of anxiety for kids. Estimates put it somewhere between 5 – 10% of children. It can result in fewer friendships, school problems, low self-esteem and missed social skill development.
Generalized Social Anxiety
Social anxiety in children can be very pervasive and impact nearly every part of their life. This is called generalized social anxiety. They would likely be very shy but the intensity and impact is much stronger than just shyness. Some researchers suggest there is a continuum for this type of anxiety with shy on one end and social anxiety on the other.
A few things that may distinguish shyness from social anxiety disorder are:
- Anxious kids will do about anything to avoid the situation
- The level of anxiety is higher causing more distress
- They have high anxiety just anticipating the situation
Specific Social Anxiety
For other kids, the anxiety may only impact a few areas of life and this is called specific social anxiety. For example, a child may be very comfortable socially and have a lot of friends. It is unlikely this child would be considered shy in any significant way. But she might get very anxious during performance situations like playing sports or giving a presentation.
Click for Symptoms of Social Anxiety in Children
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