PARENTAL MODELS OF BEHAVIOR AS A FACTOR OF VULNERABILITY TO SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

Individuals characterize a social anxiety disordered by individuals to fear social situations in which they anticipate negative evaluations. The impact of social anxiety, as one of the widespread mental health disorders, characterize by onset at an early age and affecting functioning in various domains of life and general wellbeing. The aim of the article was to conduct a review of scientific data devoted to parental behavior patterns and emotional response to the child in the process of socialization on the pathogenesis of social phobia. It was found that the results of empirical studies considered the pathogenesis of social anxiety and social phobia in the context of neurobiological vulnerability, psychological aspects of attachment, social learning models, and cognitive-behavioral models. The analysis of recent research points out that parental styles, relationship support, and emotional response can be factors of vulnerability to mental pathology and social anxiety disorder. Summing up, three paths of were realizing the influence of parental models of behavior on the development of persistent distress due to social phobia as an independent disorder are distinguished. The first considers the mutual vulnerability of the emotional response to parents' anxiety signals in the relationship with the child, which increases the tendency to behavioral inhibition or avoidance of the child's emotional experience during social interaction. The second path considers social phobia as the result of social learning parental patterns of emotional response and behavior. These links mediated by the child's low self-esteem, avoidant strategies and controlling parenting style as a protective strategy on the part of significant others. The third model considers the impact of social punishment or other socially traumatic experiences in the relationship with parents or the community (as models of parental image). According to such a strategy, a state of hypervigilance to social evaluation and avoiding behavior strategies bring temporary relief against retraumatization due to "punishment." These strategies reinforce dysfunctional cognitive and behavioral patterns that impair social efficacy and strengthen the fear of rejection through condemnation or devaluation in the long term. The obtained results will make it possible to expand the conceptual model of the pathogenesis of social phobia, which will contribute to the provision of psychosocial assistance and substantiate the need for further empirical research.