Appearance Concerns are Uniquely Associated with LPP Amplitude to Pictures of Oneself

Social concerns about anxious arousal explain the association between neural responses to anxious arousal pictures and social anxiety

Cognitive theories propose that social anxiety disorder involves heightened attention to anxious arousal symptoms due to worries that they may evoke rejection from others. Supporting this, studies have shown that social anxiety is related to greater attention to representations of anxious arousal and to anxiety sensitivity social concerns, which refers to sensitivity to feelings of anxious arousal during social situations. However, this has not yet been tested using neural indices of attention to images depicting anxious arousal. To examine these associations, the current study examined early and sustained attentional bias to anxious arousal images using the P2 and the late positive potential (LPP), respectively. Electroencephalogram data were collected while a non-clinical sample of undergraduate students (N = 106) viewed images of people exhibiting anxious arousal in addition to blocks of negative and neutral images from the IAPS. The neural response to anxious arousal images was isolated using residual scores (e.g., using linear regression to predict the P2 elicited by anxious arousal images from the P2 elicited by neutral images (P2neutral→AA) or negative images (P2negative→AA), then saving the unstandardized residuals). There was an indirect effect of the P2neutral→AA and P2negative→AA waveforms that was explained by anxiety sensitivity social concerns. Additionally, there was an indirect effect of both LPP waveforms on social anxiety symptoms during the early time window of the LPP (400-700 ms). At the later time window of the LPP (700-1000 ms), there was an indirect effect of the LPPneutral→AA residual waveform, but not the LPPnegative→AA, on social anxiety symptoms.

Appearance anxiety and social anxiety: A mediated model of self-compassion

Background

Previous studies have focused on the comorbidity of appearance anxiety and social anxiety, but few studies have focused on the protective role of self-compassion as underlying this mechanism, in young people like University students. With the increase of prevalence of appearance anxiety and social anxiety in this age group, it is necessary to explore factors that can buffer against the symptoms of these disorders. Therefore, the aims of this study were to research the effect of appearance anxiety and social anxiety, then to examine whether self-compassion has a protective effect on social anxiety.

Method

The study was cross-sectional and conducted online from October 2021 to November 2021 in Jilin Province, China. A total of 63 Universities in the province participated in this study, totaling 96,218 participants, of which 40,065 were males (41.64%) and 56,153 females (58.36%), the mean age of the sample was 19.59 (±1.74). The Appearance Anxiety Scale-Brief Version was used to measure appearance anxiety. The Social Anxiety subscale of the Self-Consciousness Scale was used to measure social anxiety. The Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form was used to measure self-compassion. A structural equation model (SEM) was run to examine the mediating effect of self-compassion on the relationship between appearance anxiety and social anxiety.

Result

Overall, appearance anxiety was positively associated with social anxiety [β = 0.334, 95% CI = (0.328, 0.341), p < 0.001], and self-compassion could mediate the effect of appearance anxiety on social anxiety [β = 0.128, 95% CI = (0.124, 0.132), p < 0.001]. Self-compassion played a partial mediating role between appearance anxiety and social anxiety.

Conclusion

Individuals with high appearance anxiety are also at higher risk of social anxiety, but self-compassion can buffer against this relationship. These findings begin to explore novel approaches to treat social anxiety and can provide valuable insights for self-compassion training.

A self-report assessment of appearance-related safety behaviours: Development and psychometric properties

BACKGROUND

Individuals with appearance concerns may engage in maladaptive appearance-related safety behaviours aimed at checking, hiding or fixing perceived flaws in their appearance.

AIMS

This investigation examined the psychometric properties of a newly developed measure of appearance-related safety behaviours across three different studies.

METHOD

The first two studies utilized exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, respectively, to understand the factor structure of the measure. The final version of the Appearance-Related Safety Behavior Scale (ARSB) consisted of 13 items and two subscales related to behavioural avoidance and appearance maintenance.

RESULTS

Number of appearance-related safety behaviours was positively associated with body dysmorphic disorder symptomology and functional impairment, as well as social anxiety and eating disorder symptoms. The measure also demonstrated convergent validity with other appearance-related measures. Scores on the ARSB also predicted performance on an appearance-related behavioural task (time spent fixing appearance prior to having a picture taken). The third study found that scores on the ARSB were higher in a body dysmorphic disorder sample compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, change in scores on the ARSB was correlated with change in body dysmorphic disorder symptoms and impairment in a treatment study for body dysmorphic disorder.

CONCLUSIONS

Clinical implications and potential uses of the measure as a clinical and research tool are discussed.