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What is Social Anxiety Disorder?
Social anxiety disorder is a common anxiety disorder in which people experience emotional, behavioral, and physical symptoms. Examples of these symptoms include intense anxiety or fear in particular or all social situations, an increased heart rate, and dizziness or lightheadedness. Social anxiety disorder can also lead to the avoidance of everyday social scenarios to the point of completely disrupting a person’s day-to-day activities and daily routine and complications as serious as suicide.
In addition to the wide range of impairments and complications people with social anxiety disorder experience, they are also subjected to higher risks of developing cannabis-related problems.
What are Injunctive Norms?
Perceived social norms are generally conceptualized as injunctive and descriptive norms. Injunctive norms refer to the prescriptive rules of what behaviors are approved or disapproved of by others, such as speaking quietly at the library. In this case, injunctive norms are used to describe beliefs regarding others’ approval (mainly parental acceptance) of cannabis use as well as of risky cannabis use. Injunctive norms associated with parental approval or disapproval of cannabis use affect the behaviors of socially anxious individuals.
Descriptive Norms:
Descriptive norms refer to typical patterns of behavior, specifically the perceptions about how people behave. About cannabis use and social anxiety, explanatory models are used to describe the beliefs regarding the perceived frequency of others’ cannabis use. It is worth noting that the descriptive norms regarding the perceptions of friends’ behaviors had little to no influence on the cannabis use behaviors of socially anxious individuals.
Societal Norms, Social Anxiety, and Cannabis Use:
There is a distinctive connection between the co-occurrence of cannabis use disorders (CUDs) and social anxiety disorder (SAD). Data from the National Comorbidity Study reveal that individuals suffering from SAD are seven times more likely to experience cannabis dependence. Although there is an abundance of research and a clear association between social anxiety and cannabis use disorders, data are less consistent regarding the direct correlation between social anxiety and more frequent cannabis use. Nevertheless, findings suggest social anxiety and social norms influence substance use behaviors.
Injunctive norms, specifically parental approval or disapproval of cannabis use, may impact the substance-related behavioral patterns of socially anxious individuals. For example, young adults with a social anxiety disorder reported experiencing isolation and a lack of consistent socialization with others as children. Due to this lack of socialization, parental approval of specific behaviors positively correlates to the children’s behavior and set of beliefs.
Data involving undergraduate students reveal that parental approval of risky cannabis use resulted in socially anxious students believing risky cannabis use to be socially acceptable. As a result, students were more likely to behave according to their parents’ perceived social norms, resulting in a higher frequency of cannabis use. Furthermore, this parental social perception can result in a higher risk of the socially anxious child developing cannabis-use-related impairments in the future.
Socially anxious students who reported parental disapproval of cannabis use had the opposite effect — a lesser frequency of cannabis use out of the fear of disappointing their parents. This parental social perception acts as a protective factor in reducing cannabis dependence among individuals with social anxiety disorder.
Additional work is required to examine further how parental influence impacts the behaviors and beliefs of socially anxious cannabis users. However, this relationship’s current research proves beneficial to understanding a parents’ influence on social anxiety.
References
Buckner, J. D., & Schmidt, N. B. (2009). Social anxiety disorder and marijuana use problems: the mediating role of marijuana effect expectancies. Depression and anxiety. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2773507/.
Ecker, A. H., & Buckner, J. D. (2014, January). Cannabis use behaviors and social anxiety: the roles of perceived descriptive and injunctive social norms. Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3893635/.
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2017, August 29). Social anxiety disorder (social phobia). Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/social-anxiety-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20353561.
Social anxiety disorder is a common anxiety disorder in which people experience emotional, behavioral, and physical symptoms. Examples of these symptoms include intense anxiety or fear in particular or all social situations, an increased heart rate, and dizziness or lightheadedness. Social anxiety disorder can also lead to the avoidance of everyday social scenarios to the point of completely disrupting a person’s day-to-day activities and daily routine and complications as serious as suicide.
In addition to the wide range of impairments and complications people with social anxiety disorder experience, they are also subjected to higher risks of developing cannabis-related problems.
What are Injunctive Norms?
Perceived social norms are generally conceptualized as injunctive and descriptive norms. Injunctive norms refer to the prescriptive rules of what behaviors are approved or disapproved of by others, such as speaking quietly at the library. In this case, injunctive norms are used to describe beliefs regarding others’ approval (mainly parental acceptance) of cannabis use as well as of risky cannabis use. Injunctive norms associated with parental approval or disapproval of cannabis use affect the behaviors of socially anxious individuals.
Descriptive Norms:
Descriptive norms refer to typical patterns of behavior, specifically the perceptions about how people behave. About cannabis use and social anxiety, explanatory models are used to describe the beliefs regarding the perceived frequency of others’ cannabis use. It is worth noting that the descriptive norms regarding the perceptions of friends’ behaviors had little to no influence on the cannabis use behaviors of socially anxious individuals.
Societal Norms, Social Anxiety, and Cannabis Use:
There is a distinctive connection between the co-occurrence of cannabis use disorders (CUDs) and social anxiety disorder (SAD). Data from the National Comorbidity Study reveal that individuals suffering from SAD are seven times more likely to experience cannabis dependence. Although there is an abundance of research and a clear association between social anxiety and cannabis use disorders, data are less consistent regarding the direct correlation between social anxiety and more frequent cannabis use. Nevertheless, findings suggest social anxiety and social norms influence substance use behaviors.
Injunctive norms, specifically parental approval or disapproval of cannabis use, may impact the substance-related behavioral patterns of socially anxious individuals. For example, young adults with a social anxiety disorder reported experiencing isolation and a lack of consistent socialization with others as children. Due to this lack of socialization, parental approval of specific behaviors positively correlates to the children’s behavior and set of beliefs.
Data involving undergraduate students reveal that parental approval of risky cannabis use resulted in socially anxious students believing risky cannabis use to be socially acceptable. As a result, students were more likely to behave according to their parents’ perceived social norms, resulting in a higher frequency of cannabis use. Furthermore, this parental social perception can result in a higher risk of the socially anxious child developing cannabis-use-related impairments in the future.
Socially anxious students who reported parental disapproval of cannabis use had the opposite effect — a lesser frequency of cannabis use out of the fear of disappointing their parents. This parental social perception acts as a protective factor in reducing cannabis dependence among individuals with social anxiety disorder.
Additional work is required to examine further how parental influence impacts the behaviors and beliefs of socially anxious cannabis users. However, this relationship’s current research proves beneficial to understanding a parents’ influence on social anxiety.
References
Buckner, J. D., & Schmidt, N. B. (2009). Social anxiety disorder and marijuana use problems: the mediating role of marijuana effect expectancies. Depression and anxiety. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2773507/.
Ecker, A. H., & Buckner, J. D. (2014, January). Cannabis use behaviors and social anxiety: the roles of perceived descriptive and injunctive social norms. Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3893635/.
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2017, August 29). Social anxiety disorder (social phobia). Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/social-anxiety-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20353561.
