Associations between social anxiety and nonverbal processing skill in preadolescent boys and girls

This study was designed to investigate the potential association between so cial anxiety and children's ability to decode nonverbal emotional cues. Par ticipants were 62 children between 8 and 10 years of age, who completed sel f-report measures of social anxiety, depressive symptomatology, and nonspec ific anxious symptomatology, as well as nonverbal decoding tasks assessing accuracy at identifying emotion in facial expressions and vocal tones. Data were analyzed with multiple regression analyses controlling for generalize d cognitive ability, and nonspecific anxious and depressive symptomatology. Results provided partial support for the hypothesis that social anxiety wo uld relate to nonverbal decoding accuracy. Difficulty identifying emotions conveyed in children's and adults' voices was associated with general socia l avoidance and distress. At higher levels of social anxiety, children more frequently mislabeled fearful voices as sad. Possible explanations for the obtained results are explored.