ArticlePsychological medicine2021
Much more than just shyness: the impact of social anxiety disorder on educational performance across the lifespan.
Article in Psychological medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Digital Mental Health Interventions for the Prevention and Treatment of Social Anxiety Disorder in Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- An intervention to build social identities improves mental health and wellbeing in people with elevated social anxiety: Evidence from a single-arm clinical trial.The British journal of clinical psychology · 2025Trial
- Prevention and treatment of social anxiety disorder in adolescents: mixed method randomised controlled trial of the guided online intervention SOPHIE.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- 5-year follow-up of adolescents with social anxiety disorder: Current functioning during COVID-19.Psychiatry research · 2023Trial
- Internet-delivered therapist-assisted cognitive therapy for adolescent social anxiety disorder (OSCA): a randomised controlled trial addressing preliminary efficacy and mechanisms of action.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2023Trial
- Treating Childhood Social Anxiety Disorder With Virtual Environments and Serious Games: A Randomized Trial.Behavior therapy · 2021Trial
- Blunted Reward Responsiveness During Social Feedback: Associations with Peer Victimization and Anhedonia in Socially Anxious Adolescents.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- The Anxious Mind: Examining the Conflicting Relationships Between Distinct Aspects of Social Anxiety and Social Cognition.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Social Anxiety Profiles and Psychopathological Symptom Differences in Spanish Adolescents.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Anxiety and Performance in High-Achieving Adolescents: Associations Among 8 General and Specific Anxiety Measures and 13 School Grades.PsyCh journal · 2026Article
- All-cause and cause-specific mortality in social anxiety disorder: a matched cohort and sibling cohort study.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2026Article
- Adverse Childhood Experiences Increase Peer Victimization among Early Adolescents: the Longitudinal Mediating Roles of Executive Function and Social Anxiety.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2026Article
- Predictors of Change in Treatment Response to Group-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adolescents with Social Anxiety Disorder.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Childhood adversity and social anxiety among college students: the mediating roles of personal growth initiative and problematic social media use.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Impact of problematic substance use and social anxiety on school functioning: Insights from the Texas Youth Depression and Suicide Research Network.PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- Psychometric properties of Lithuanian translation of the self-report version of the Liebowitz social anxiety scale in young adult sample.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Assessing reliable change, MCID, treatment response, and remission using the Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale (PARS) in youth with anxiety disorders.Journal of anxiety disorders · 2025Article
- Take a Look at Me Now: The Use of Virtual Reality in the Treatment of Social Anxiety Disorder.Journal of clinical psychology · 2025Article
- Does Intolerance of Uncertainty Influence Social Anxiety Through Rumination? A Mediation Model in Emerging Adults.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Social Interaction Anxiety in Developmental Prosopagnosia: Prevalence, Severity, and Individual Differences.Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) has been linked to academic underachievement, but previous studies had methodological limitations. We investigated the association between SAD and objective indicators of educational performance, controlling for a number of covariates and unmeasured confounders shared between siblings.
methodsThis population-based birth cohort study included 2 238 837 individuals born in Sweden between 1973 and 1997, followed-up until 2013. Within the cohort, 15 755 individuals had a recorded ICD-10 diagnosis of SAD in the Swedish National Patient Register. Logistic regression models tested the association between SAD and educational performance. We also identified 6488 families with full siblings discordant for SAD.
resultsCompared to unexposed individuals, individuals diagnosed with SAD were less likely to pass all subjects in the last year of compulsory education [adjusted odds ratios (aOR) ranging from 0.19 to 0.44] and less likely to be eligible for a vocational or academic programme in upper secondary education [aOR = 0.31 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.30-0.33) and aOR = 0.52 (95% CI 0.50-0.55), respectively], finish upper secondary education [aOR = 0.19 (95% CI 0.19-0.20)], start a university degree [aOR = 0.47 (95% CI 0.45-0.49)], obtain a university degree [aOR = 0.35 (95% CI 0.33-0.37)], and finish postgraduate education [aOR = 0.58 (95% CI 0.43-0.80)]. Results were attenuated but remained statistically significant in adjusted sibling comparison models. When psychiatric comorbidities were taken into account, the results were largely unchanged.
conclusionsTreatment-seeking individuals with SAD have substantially impaired academic performance throughout the formative years. Early detection and intervention are warranted to minimise the long-term socioeconomic impact of the disorder.
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