Abstract:

Aim: The aim of this study is to establish the levels of social anxiety of university students and investigate the relationship between social anxiety and depression, anxiety, and demograhic and socio-cultural characteristics. Material and Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted upon 264 (83.8%) students studying at 10 different programs at Erciyes University Health Services Vocational School in 2011-2012 academic year. Personal information form including the demographic- sociocultural characteristics of the students together with Social Anxiety Scale, Beck Depression Scale (BDS) and Beck Anxiety Scale (BAS) were used as data collection tool in the research. Mann-Whitney U Test was used to compare two groups, and one-way analysis of variance and/or Kruskal Wallis Test for comparison of more than two groups. Spearman's correlation coefficient was calculated to evaluate the relationship between variables.  Results: The “social anxiety” median score of the students was found as 33 (0-109), and the subdimension median scores were as follows “social avoidance” as 12.0 (6.0- 20.75), “anxietyof negative critism” as 14.0 (8.0-20.75), and “ self-depreciation” as 6.0 ( 2.0-10.0). The “social avoidance” score of the students living in a detached house was found significantly high (p<0.05). The “social avoidence” score of those spending most of their lives in a village was found significantly higher when comparing with the score of those spending most of their lives in a county, and the “self-depreciation” score of them was found significantly higher when comparing with those spending most of their lives in a city and county (p<0.05). The “anxiety of negative criticism” and “selfdepreciation” subdimensions scores of the students studying at the Oral and Dental Health Technician Programme were found significantly high (p<0.05). There was a significant negative relationship between the income level of the students and the scores of the“social avoidance” (rho=-0.129, p=0.037),“anxiety of negative criticism” (rho=-0.123, p=0.046)and “ selfdepreciation”(rho=-0.155, p=0.012). There was a significant positive relationship between the depression and anxiety scores of the students and their “social avoidance”, “anxietyof negative criticism”, and “selfdepreciation” subdimensionscores (p<0.001).  Conclusion: It would be appropriate to produce attitudes that make “feeling of adequacy” developand become stronger and to establish policies necessary to increase socialising instead of the attitudes causing “feeling of inadequacy” to be developed in children and the young during the process of education as well as in the family in order to prevent the social anxiety which has also a cultural dimension to be formed.

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