Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2009
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MS
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Psychology
Committee Chair
Tracy L. Morris.
Abstract
Previous research has found that parental control predicts social anxiety and is moderated by parental proximity, as measured by the amount of contact one has with their parent; however there have been no studies examining how levels of parental proximity may change over the course of a young adult's life. The purpose of the current study was to examine how variables previously associated with social anxiety change across a semester of college. The current study examined parental proximity, autonomy, social support and social anxiety at three points across the semester. Thirty-nine undergraduate students at West Virginia University participated in the study. It was hypothesized that as the semester progressed, reported levels of parental proximity would decrease, while autonomy and social support would increase as students assimilated more into the college community. To evaluate these hypotheses, a repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted. While results were in the predicted direction, there were no significant findings. As past research has found that levels of social anxiety were higher for those who maintained close proximity to their parents and whose parents were more controlling, it was hypothesized that the same would hold true for the current study. To test this hypothesis, a univariate analysis of variance was conducted; however, the results were not significant nor in the predicted direction. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Jones, Andrea M., "How influential are they? The role of parents, social support, attachment, and autonomy in college students' likelihood to experience social anxiety" (2009). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 2902.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/2902