SOCIAL ANXIETY IN ADOLESCENTS: DOES SELF ESTEEM MATTER?

The objective of the present study is to investigate the significance of Self esteem in producing Social Anxiety in adolescent students. For this purpose 210 adolescent students (124 females and 86 males) between the agerange of 16 years to 19 years were randomly selected from all three socio-economic status i.e. low, middle and high. Demographic information form was filled and the level of self esteem and social anxiety of participants were measured through use of Rosenberg Self esteem Scale and Interaction Anxiousness Scale. Pearson Product Correlation coefficient, partial correlation and linear regression were used. Results show that negative correlation (r= -.418, p<0.001) was found between self-esteem and social anxiety. Same trends between these two variables (r= -.417, p<0.001) were also found after controlling the effects of gender, age and monthly income of family. For further explanations regression analysis also yields significant resultsreflecting self-esteem as the factor involved in development of social anxiety [R? = .175, F (1, 208) = 44.149, p