Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Camilo Ortiz, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Eva Feindler, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Marc Diener, Ph.D.

Abstract

There is a strong positive association between social anxiety and loneliness (Maes et al., 2019). This relationship appears to be weaker the higher the quality of children’s friendships (Erath et al., 2010). While the moderational relationship has been demonstrated among middle school children, it is not known whether it extends into the college population. There are important developmental differences between adolescents and college students. For example, the increased reliance on friendships that is typical during college may result in an increase in the protective nature of friendship quality in the relationship between social anxiety and loneliness (Danneel et al., 2019; Heinrich & Gullone, 2006). These differences suggest that the relationships between friendship quality, social anxiety, and loneliness should be examined in the older group. I hypothesized that the association between social anxiety and loneliness would be moderated by friendship quality such that the higher the quality of friendships, the weaker the association between social anxiety and loneliness in the college population. The results revealed a negative correlation between loneliness and friendship quality, and a positive correlation between loneliness and social anxiety, as well as friendship quality and social anxiety. However, the relationship between social anxiety and loneliness was not moderated by friendship quality. These findings are important to consider in the effort to understand social anxiety and loneliness in college. The examination of other variables is necessary in the association of social anxiety and loneliness to discover potential protective factors.

Download

Share

COinS