Adolescents’ interpersonal cognition and self-appraisal of their own anxiety in an imagined anxiety-provoking classroom presentation scenario: Gender differences

Oral class presentations are regularly assigned to adolescents, but often provoke social anxiety, due the importance of peer approval and need appraise oneself as normal. Also, little is known about gender differences in girls’ boys’ interpersonal cognition appraisals anxiety self anxiety-provoking speech situations. We examined an imagined presentation scenario a normative sample 687 14-16-years-old, from Southwest Finland. Measures included Classroom Questionnaire Social Anxiety Interpersonal Cognition Scale for Adolescents. T-tests cognition, chi-square tests adolescents’ likelihood their own anxious. Girls more frequently reported positive, less negative, responses toward depicted, anxious than boys. higher percentage girls predicted that becoming situation was likely, non-acceptance frequent among girls. Boys negative overt classmate reactions (e.g., laughing) towards peer, themselves did Results discussed context gender-specific development procedures reducing adolescent anxiety.