Assessment of Social Anxiety among Adolescents in Lagos Metropolis

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of social anxiety among adolescents in Lagos metropolis. The following hypotheses were formulated and tested to achieve the objective: (1) Female participants will have significantly higher scores in measures of SAS than male participants. (2) There will be significant trend in the progression of social anxiety from the younger adolescents to the older age categories. (3) Participants with low educational attainment will report significantly higher levels of social anxiety than those with high educational attainment. Participants (364) were drawn from three high schools and 100 level university students. Social Anxiety Scale with its seven components was used to collect data. Four major findings resulted from the study. First, a prevalence of 27.47% social anxiety was found among the adolescent participants. Second, female participants significantly exhibited higher levels of social anxiety than male participants. Third, there was a decrease in social anxiety level as age increased from 12 to 17 years with an upward surge from age 17-21 revealing a curve-linear trend. Four, study showed that low educational status does not necessarily predict high level of social anxiety. Recommendations were made to government, educators, and future researchers.

Keywords: Social Anxiety; Adolescent; Prevalence; Assessment

Ife PsychologIA, 20(2), September 2012