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...sixth grades of an urban elementary school. Consistent with prior work, for girls, fear of negative evaluation and social avoidance of general and new situations were associated with sport anxiety. In contrast, there was little relation between social anxiety and sport anxiety for boys. Implications of these findings for the assessment and treatment of social anxiety in children are discussed.
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Social phobia is characterized by "a marked and persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others" (American Psychiatric Association, 1994; p. 411). Situations commonly feared by children and adolescents include attending social events, initiating conversations, public speaking, sport and musical performances, and speaking to authority figures (Holt, Heimberg, Hope, Liebowitz, 1992; Turner & Beidel, 1989). Importantly, social phobia is a relatively common problem during childhood and adolescence (Anderson, Williams, McGee, & Silva, 1987), and is associated with a number of negative adjustment indices including school refusal (Last, Hersen, Kazdin, Orvaschel, & Perrin, 1991), poor school performance (Beidel, 1991), depression (Inderbitzen-Nolan & Walters, 2002), substance use (Pine, Cohen, Gurley, Brook, & Ma, 1998), and problematic peer relations (Inderbitzen-Nolan, Walters, & Bukowski, 1997; La Greca, Dandes , Wick, Shaw, & Stone, 1988; Vernberg, Abwender, Ewell, & Beery, 1992).
Despite an abundance of research examining specific situations that are feared or avoided by anxious youth, little systematic investigation has examined the extent to which social anxiety generalizes to participation in sports. Involvement in recreational athletics during childhood has a number of important physical and mental health benefits. For example, involvement in sport is associated with improved self-esteem (Ryska, 2002, body image (Miller & Levy, 1996), general mental health (Steiner, McQuivey, Pavelski, Pitts, & Kraemer, 2000), and decreased levels of depression, stress, heart disease, and diabetes (International Society of Sport Psychology, 1992).
However, a sizable number of children and adolescents avoid specific activities (e.g., individual sports), perhaps due to social anxiety (Norton, Burns, Hope, & Bauer, 2000). If true, avoidance of sports due to social anxiety may limit the physical and psychological benefits associated with typical levels of sport participation. In addition, opportunities to develop age-appropriate peer relationships may be missed. Understanding the extent to which social anxiety generalizes to sport in order may assist clinicians in incorporating sporting situations into treatment plans.
Existing research on anxiety in sport has primarily examined the effects of anxiety on performance (e.g., Jones, 1995). The few studies that have examined the role of anxiety in sport nonparticipation have suggested that some youth do not participate due to fears of failure, poor performance, and negative evaluation (Norton et al., 2000; Orlick & Botterill, 1975; Scanlan, 1984). Recently, Norton and colleagues (2000)...
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