Social anxiety and depression in adolescents in relation to perceived competence and situational appraisal

Abstract

The Social Anxiety and Phobia Inventory for Children (SPAI-C), the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Harter's (1982) Perceived Competence Scale for Children (PCSC), as well as an inventory of cost and likelihood appraisal of negative social and non-social events, were filled in by 184 adolescents (14-15 years old). It was expected that social anxiety would be specifically related to low perceived competence in the social domain and threat appraisal in the same domain, whereas depression would be related to more general perceived competence deficits. The relationships of social anxiety and depression to perceived competence and appraisal were largely supported. Social anxiety was most strongly related to perceived social competence as well as to both social cost and likelihood appraisals, whereas depression was more generally related to perceived competence, and appraisal of negative events did not improve the prediction of depression any more than the prediction based on perceived competence.