Parental Influence on Social Anxiety in Children and Adolescents: Its Assessment and Management Using Psychodrama

Esther F. Akinsola, Pamela Arnold Udoka

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.

DOI: 10.4236/psych.2013.43A037                

Abstract

Available literature implicates hereditary disposition and environmental conditions in the development of social anxiety in children. Based on their early experiences children can perceive and interpret normal social situations and interactions negatively and as threatening. This perceptions can generate anxieties in them including social and performance anxieties. Based on this premise an attempt was made in this study to assess social and performance anxieties in some children and adolescents, determine the influence of parenting on the development of these anxieties and manage those with high levels of these anxieties using psychodrama as the therapeutic technique. 567children and adolescents aged 7 -16 years, (275 males and 292 females) were assessed on social anxiety, performance anxiety, and parenting style scales. Participants who reported high levels of anxiety and who scored higher than the mean scores on the anxieties scales were managed using psychodrama. Results obtained indicated that permissive parenting style and its hybrids tend to promote the development of social and performance anxieties in the participants more than other parenting styles. In addition psychodrama as an intervention therapy was found to be effective in reducing the levels of social and performance anxieties in the participants managed.

Keywords

Parental Influence; Social Anxiety; Psychodrama

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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