Understanding and Treating Social Anxiety in Female Adolescents

Social anxiety is an intense discomfort and self-consciousness about potential negative evaluations from others or the possibility of embarrassing oneself. The incidence of social anxiety rises in adolescent girls compared to boys (11.2% versus 7.0%). Learning to take healthy risks, developing confidence, and gaining exposure to anxiety-generating stimuli are important. Self-acceptance training, mindfulness training, and reversing of automatic negative interpretive biases are useful interventions. Such techniques are illustrated and described.