Shame as a predictor of post-event rumination in social anxiety

Evidence shows that people with high social anxiety levels ruminate about distressing social events, which contributes to the maintenance of social anxiety symptoms. The present study aimed to explore the role of shame in maintaining post-event rumination (PER) following a negative social event (an impromptu speech with negative feedback) in a student sample (<i>N</i> = 104). Participants reported negative rumination related to the event one day and one week after the speech. PER measured one day after the speech was not associated with social anxiety symptoms and state anxiety. One week later, participants with clinically relevant social anxiety symptoms experienced greater PER. State shame was the only significant predictor of PER in a regression equation that also included social anxiety symptoms, state anxiety and self-evaluation of performance. Possible explanations and implications are discussed in light of cognitive models of social anxiety.

已有研究表明，社交焦虑（social anxiety）水平较高的个体，会反复回味令其痛苦的社交事件，而这一过程会维持社交焦虑症状的持续存在。本研究旨在探讨羞耻感在学生群体（<i>N</i> = 104）遭遇负面社交事件（一场带有负面反馈的即兴演讲）后，事件后反刍（post-event rumination, PER）维持过程中的作用。参与者分别在演讲结束后1天与1周时，报告其与该事件相关的负面反刍思维。演讲后1天测得的事件后反刍水平，与社交焦虑症状及状态焦虑（state anxiety）均无显著关联。而在演讲结束1周后，具有临床意义的社交焦虑症状的参与者，其事件后反刍水平显著更高。在纳入社交焦虑症状、状态焦虑与任务表现自我评估的回归模型中，状态羞耻感（state shame）是事件后反刍的唯一显著预测因子。本研究结合社交焦虑的认知模型，对可能的解释机制与研究启示展开了讨论。