Abstract:
The purpose of present study was to investigate the prevalence and psychological correlates of
social anxiety disorder among university students. The research was carried out in three phases,
in first phase social anxiety disorder was identified in university students, in second phase
socially anxious students personality traits and perceived parenting styles was identified, and in
third phase non anxious students personality traits and parenting styles were assessed for
comparison purpose. A total sample of 500 students in which 250 were male and 250 were
females ranging in age 17-25 years with educational background of 1st year to M.sc final year
were selected randomly from different rural and urban universities. It was hypothesized that
Social anxiety will be high among female students as compared to male students. Parenting style
of parents of socially anxious students would be overprotective and rejecting as compared to
non-anxious students. Students belonging to rural areas would have more social anxiety as
compared to students belonging to urban areas. Liebowitz social anxiety scale, Rosenberg selfesteem
scale, introversion scale, shyness scale, and measure of parental style were used to assess
social anxiety disorder, self-esteem, introversion, shyness, and perceived parenting style. T-test,
chi-square and one way Anova was applied on the result to investigate the significant differences
between the two groups. Results confirmed hypotheses; it was found that social anxiety disorder
is more among female students and students belonging to rural areas. It was also concluded that
socially anxious students rate their parenting style as over control and rejecting. Social anxiety
disorder affects personality traits such as shyness, self-esteem, and introversion.
