Article

The Effects of Behavioral Inhibition and Perfectionism on High School Girls’ Social Anxiety.

Author

안현선, 박성연

Information

pp. 209~225 / 2010 Vol.17 No.1

Abstract

The purpose of current study is to examine the association between childhood behavioral inhibition, perfectionism, and social anxiety(i.e., interpersonal anxiety & performance anxiety). A total of 373 high school girls(mean age= 16.8 yrs.) participated in this study. Data were collected through questionnaires and analyzed by Pearson’s correlation and Multiple regression. The results were as follows: 1) Childhood behavioral inhibition was positively correlated with all sub-dimensions of perfectionism except socially-prescribed perfectionism. 2) ‘Concern over mistakes’ among multidimensional perfectionism was the most significant variable predicting interpersonal anxiety, whereas ‘childhood behavioral inhibition’ was the most significant variable predicting performance anxiety. 3) Behavioral inhibition and perfectionism concerning parental criticism additively predicted higher performance anxiety. Specifically, high school girls with higher behavioral inhibition and higher perfectionism regarding parental criticism showed the highest performance anxiety. To conclude, both behavioral inhibition and perfectionism were significant antecedent variables in predicting social anxiety amongst high school girls.Key words : behavioral inhibition, perfectionism, social anxiety

Keywords