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.

已有研究证实，社交焦虑水平较高的个体常会反复思虑令人痛苦的社交事件，而该过程会进一步维持社交焦虑症状。本研究以104名大学生为被试（N=104），旨在探讨羞耻感在负性社交事件（带有负面反馈的即兴演讲）后维持事后反刍（post-event rumination, PER）中的作用。被试分别在演讲结束后1天与1周，报告了与该事件相关的负性反刍思维。演讲后1天测得的事后反刍水平与社交焦虑症状及状态焦虑均无显著关联；而在演讲1周后，存在临床意义社交焦虑症状的被试，其事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，状态羞耻感是事后反刍水平唯一的显著预测变量。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。