TY - JOUR
T1 - Please Don’t Compliment Me! Fear of Positive Evaluation and Emotion Regulation – Implications for Adolescents’ Social Anxiety
AU - Tsarpalis-Fragkoulidis, Achilleas
AU - Van Eickels, Rahel Lea
AU - Zemp, Martina
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.
PY - 2022/10/11
Y1 - 2022/10/11
N2 - In recent years, fear of positive evaluation has emerged as one of the key aspects of social anxiety, alongside fear of negative evaluation. Fears of evaluation intensify during adolescence, a time when individuals are expected to navigate new, emotionally challenging situations. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between social anxiety, fear of positive and negative evaluation, and three emotion regulation strategies relevant to social anxiety, i.e., suppression, acceptance, and rumination. To this end, data were collected from 647 adolescents via an online survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling. We found that fear of negative evaluation was significantly related to rumination, whereas fear of positive evaluation was significantly and negatively related to acceptance. We further found an indirect effect of social anxiety on suppression via fear of positive evaluation and acceptance in a serial mediation and an indirect effect of social anxiety on rumination via fear of negative evaluation. Not only do fears of positive and negative evaluation appear to be distinct constructs, but they are also differentially associated with three emotion regulation strategies pertinent to social anxiety. Fear of evaluation and its associations with emotion regulation deficits might hinder the therapeutic process by acting as a deterrent to positive reinforcement or potentially impeding the development of a successful therapeutic alliance.
AB - In recent years, fear of positive evaluation has emerged as one of the key aspects of social anxiety, alongside fear of negative evaluation. Fears of evaluation intensify during adolescence, a time when individuals are expected to navigate new, emotionally challenging situations. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between social anxiety, fear of positive and negative evaluation, and three emotion regulation strategies relevant to social anxiety, i.e., suppression, acceptance, and rumination. To this end, data were collected from 647 adolescents via an online survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling. We found that fear of negative evaluation was significantly related to rumination, whereas fear of positive evaluation was significantly and negatively related to acceptance. We further found an indirect effect of social anxiety on suppression via fear of positive evaluation and acceptance in a serial mediation and an indirect effect of social anxiety on rumination via fear of negative evaluation. Not only do fears of positive and negative evaluation appear to be distinct constructs, but they are also differentially associated with three emotion regulation strategies pertinent to social anxiety. Fear of evaluation and its associations with emotion regulation deficits might hinder the therapeutic process by acting as a deterrent to positive reinforcement or potentially impeding the development of a successful therapeutic alliance.
KW - adolescence
KW - emotion regulation
KW - fear of negative evaluation
KW - fear of positive evaluation
KW - positivity impairment
KW - social anxiety
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85140761772&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/jcm11205979
DO - 10.3390/jcm11205979
M3 - Article
VL - 11
JO - Journal of clinical medicine
JF - Journal of clinical medicine
SN - 2077-0383
IS - 20
M1 - 5979
ER -