Citation

Andrews LA, Brothers SL, Sauvé JS, Nangle DW, Erdley CA, Hord MK. Aggress. Violent Behav. 2019; 48: 94-103.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.avb.2019.08.005

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Somewhat surprisingly, social anxiety has been linked with aggressive behavior in adults. Among youth, this connection has been demonstrated with anxiety symptoms more broadly. This review extends previous work by evaluating this association specifically with social anxiety in the child and adolescent literature. Given the complexities of aggressive behavior, the review is organized by its various forms (relational and physical) and functions (reactive and proactive).

FINDINGS from sixteen identified studies are suggestive of links between social anxiety and reactive and relational forms of aggression. Albeit more tenuous, there appear to be associations with physical aggression as well. Overall, though suggestive of connections between social anxiety and aggression, confidence in the findings is attenuated by the relatively small number of relevant studies combined with inconsistent gender findings. Before suggesting directions for further study, we propose putative dysfunctional biological, emotional, and cognitive processes as factors that may underlie associations between social anxiety and these particular forms of aggression. Future research should target differences in age, gender, relationship type, and anxiety subtype. Determining the extent to which these associations may be attributable to comorbid pathology such as depression or a broader internalizing syndrome is also important.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescents; Children; Reactive aggression; Relational aggression; Social anxiety