Abstract

The primary purpose of the present study was to investigate effects of social anxiety on emotion decoding of facial expressions in children and adolescents. A total of 527 children and adolescents(272 4-5th graders 256 7-8th graders) were given Social Anxiety Scale for Children- Revised and those with the SASC-R score in the top 20%(High Social Anxiety Group) and low 20%(Low Social Anxiety Group) in each age x sex group were compared in their pleasant- unpleasant ratings of 9 facial expressions, 3 in each of the positive, neutral and negative types of emotions. The results showed that girls with high social anxiety rated facial expressions more positively than those with low social anxiety, while boys with high social anxiety rated them more negatively than those with low social anxiety, although the group difference for boys did not reach statistical significance. The role of cognitive biases in the development and maintenance of social anxiety in children and adolescents was discussed.