Possible causes of girls’ susceptibility to social phobia and suggestions for treatments

1. Adolescent girls tend to be more worried than boys about their peers' negative evaluations of them. Surveys have found that adolescent girls are more concerned than boys about others' judgments of their appearance and behavior (Nolen-Hoeksema & Larson, 1992; Rosen & Aneshensel, 1976).

2. Rates of internalizing problems are higher among girls than boys (Bernstein, Garfinkel, & Hoberman, 1989; Kashani, Orvasehel, Rosenberg, & Reid, 1989; Quay & La Greca, 1986)

3. Recent research showed that adolescents' close friendships are more strongly associated with girls' levels of social phobia than boys'. Specifically, adolescent girls who reported higher levels of social phobia also reported having fewer best friends, feeling less competent in their friendships, and perceiving their friendships as less supportive, less intimate, and lower in companionship. Of the SAS-A (Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents) subscales, SAD-General was the one most strongly associated with the friendship variables. Although the overall pattern of results was similar for boys and girls, social phobia was generally not significantly related to boys' friendships

4. Gender expectations: Adolescent girls have higher expectations of success than boys in their general academic abilities across domains and in their social skills (American Psychological Association, 1998). Girls have also shown to be more sensitive to failure. As a result, even a mere experience of peer rejection may cause them to develop social phobia.

Suggestions for treatments based on findings

- Teachers who notice that adolescents, especially girls, who find difficulty associating with their peers or doing presentations can approach them and give them personal consultation.

- Parents can give adolescents more exposure to social situations, and build up their socializing skills. They should also pay more attention to their daughters’ feelings and give them support where necessary.

- More talks can be conducted to raise public awareness of the rising prevalence of social phobia in adolescents. The content of these talks should include the symptoms and implications of social phobia, and where adolescents can get help from. In this way, parents, teachers, friends or adolescents themselves who notice that they exhibit signs of social phobia will be able to recognize the severity of social phobia and seek help early.

- Advertisements or billboards (for example those discouraging people from smoking or persuading people who suffer from depression to seek help early) can be used to encourage adolescents with social phobia to seek help

- In addition, to raise awareness about the role of a person’s gender in social phobia, a blog (http://njsocialphobiagroup.blogspot.com) would be set up to allow teenagers to have easy access to information in this area. A discussion board will be part of the blog for them to voice their problems and to raise any queries they might have about the project. In this way, the project will be made more meaningful as teenagers can gain more insights regarding this growing problem.