The primary goal of this study is to complete an analysis of the experience of social anxiety in a sample of rural Native American adolescents. Central to this proposal is the idea that individual and contextual factors interact to determine the risk for psychopathology in development. Individual factors, such as behaviorally inhibited temperament -- an early appearing, and stable tendency towards being shy, fearful, and easily upset in unfamiliar environments -- have been found to relate to the development of social anxiety in. adolescence (Mick & Telch,.1.998;.Hayward,.Killen,.Kraemer & Taylor, 1998). The nature of this association, however, and its contribution within an ecological context that also includes familial, peer, and community factors, has not been established. This project proposes multivariate analyses of the individual personality and familial, social, and cultural/community contexts in their contribution to the development of social anxiety in young adolescents. A community-based sample of rural Native American adolescents will allow for the particularly unique analysis of how culture and ethnic identity may play a role in the risk for social anxiety. Results from this study may allow for the specifications of multiple models of risk in this population, including differentiation between types of social anxiety and their specific characteristics, and nature of the associations among relevant individual and contextual factors in the prediction and experience of adolescent social anxiety.
