The impact of social phobia on educational performance

Social phobia is a problem that has repercussions in different spheres of the life of the person who suffers from this condition.

This time, we are going to focus on the effects it may have on the educational performance of individuals with social anxiety disorder, listing some of the main repercussions and delving into them to understand them in greater detail.

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What is the impact of social phobia on educational performance?

In order to analyze how the impact of social phobia on educational performance deserves, it is It is necessary that we begin by focusing on this pathology in order to have a theoretical basis on which move along. Only then will we be able to understand the scope of this question.

Social phobia, or social anxiety disorder, is a psychopathology fundamentally characterized by generating important pictures of anxiety symptoms, triggered by the fear that the individual suffers when exposed to a social situation

, that is, an event in which the person feels somehow evaluated by others, even if it is only their perception.

The pathology behind the question of the impact of social phobia on educational performance is the most frequent within the block anxiety disorders, and shares part of its symptoms with other ailments such as avoidant personality disorder or anxious

Some of these symptoms would be an increase in heart rate, sweating, trembling, flushing, and even nausea and vomiting, in those who experience it with greater intensity. This symptomatology can trigger a panic attack, in which the fear of the social situation and its consequences becomes totally unbearable for the subject.

Some of the situations that can trigger this torrent of symptoms are common actions such as attending a crowded place where the person has to interact with others, speaking before an audience, or even suddenly run into a person he knows. Therefore, it is not surprising that the impact of social phobia on educational performance is going to be significant.

Feeling observed by others, whether this action is a reality or a perception of the subject, and even his own Anticipation that this is going to happen or can happen, can act as a trigger for all those anxiety symptoms that we have listed. Also, keep in mind that social phobia It can be generalized, where any social situation would trigger it, or specific, which would only activate in certain contexts.

Once we know the main features and characteristics of this disorder, we can proceed to analyze the impact of social phobia on educational performance, thus focusing on a very specific scenario, which is the academic.

Characteristics of students with social anxiety

When we explore the question of the impact of social phobia on educational achievement, what we mean It is the group of children who suffer from anxiety in the school context and therefore, one of the consequences is that they will experience difficulties reaching some of the academic goals.

In this case, social anxiety could be specific, activating only in the school setting, although it may also be the case that social anxiety is generalized and the academic context is only one of those that activate it, although it is the effects in this specific area that concern us in this chance.

First of all, it should be noted that a majority of children experience or have experienced fear for various reasons, many of them in the educational context. However, they usually tend to disappear without major problem, but a small group of them maintain these fears, suffering them with a high intensity and continuing with them when they become adults.

It would be in that small group that we would be looking to analyze the impact of social phobia on educational performance. In order to identify them, a time of four weeks would be set as a criterion in which the student, continuously, has experienced anxiety symptoms when attending their school or institute, or participating in any of the activities that are there give.

These types of scenarios can be simply attending class, having to speak to your classmates or teacher, participating in games or activities during recess or physical education classes, facing assessment tests, or some other. Depending on the case, the student with social phobia could experience fear in any of these situations, in a combination of several, or even in all of them.

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Effects of social anxiety disorder on educational performance

When we talk about the impact of social phobia on educational performance, we must be aware that this can become considerable, since a child who suffers a serious case of social anxiety in the school context, can be affected different levels of your life, which we are going to review below to know them in detail.

1. Academic goals

The first one of affectation is also the most evident, and refers to the academic objectives that the minor has throughout the school year. If the student experience fear simply by going to school, doing homework in the classroom, or taking exams or other assessment tests, your results are going to be affected.

A person, in this case a child, who is experiencing anxiety symptoms, will have difficulties to achieve a performance equal to that of an individual who is calm or at least does not have those levels of activation. Logically, this is a generalization, without taking into account the specific variables of each case, such as IQ or other factors that can predict performance academic.

Therefore, the academic results themselves will be the first of the consequences that social anxiety can trigger in students who suffer from it.

2. Social skills

Continuing with the impact of social phobia on educational performance, another factor that may be compromised is that of the social skills of these students. And it is that childhood and adolescence are learning stages, not only academic, but in all aspects, and one of them is that of the social skills themselves.

By feeling fear in anticipation of a social situation, affected children and adolescents will not be able to carry out the necessary interactions with their peers in These skills are learned and improved, because although they have a theoretical basis, they will lack those practical situations in which these tools are consolidate.

In addition, this lack of social skills can act as a vicious circle, making the subject, aware of this limitation, feel even more insecure in a situation. social, such as those that occur in the school environment, which in turn would hinder the acquisition of these skills and therefore would make that in the following situation, fear could be older.

3. Physical and mental health

It is evident that when suffering from psychopathology such as social anxiety, one's own mental health is already being compromised. But in addition, as there are several anxiety symptoms that are physical in nature, physical health itself can also deteriorate. Discomfort caused by palpitations, rapid breathing, trembling, or difficulty sleeping are examples of symptoms that can affect health..

That is why when we refer to the impact of social phobia on educational performance, we cannot also forget about the health dimension and the well-being and the student, which could be some of the factors deteriorated by this issue and that therefore would have to be repaired immediately.

4. Future socioeconomic status

The last of the levels of affectation that we are going to analyze is that of the future socioeconomic level, a factor that is not altered directly, but indirectly. Specifically, it is a possible consequence that is given by the decrease in academic performance that we saw in the first point.

And it is that, a student who has a low school performance, in this case supervening by her social anxiety, is going to have less chance of accessing a higher education which generally gives access to better jobs paid. Of course, this is an assessment in general terms, and not all cases have to be this way.

These would be the main levels of the impact of social phobia on educational performance that we can mainly observe.