Social anxiety disorder as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders in its latest editions (DSM-IV [
1], DSM-5 [
2]) is characterized by a persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others. The individual fears that he or she will act in a way (or show anxiety symptoms) that will be embarrassing and humiliating. This insecurity in social situations underlie specific inner representations of others and stable behavioral patterns, defined as attachment behavior [
3]. By means of this behavior a child manages feelings of stress or fear through the regulation of proximity to a caregiver.
Specifically, socially anxious individuals often show less secure attachment, which is characterized by a positive self-image and a positive image of others. Instead they show an insecure attachment, which distinguishes between three different attachment styles [
3]. First, the preoccupied attachment style, which is defined by a negative view of self and a positive view of others. People with preoccupied attachment style are characterized by a dependent interpersonal style as well as a deep-rooted lack of selfworth. Second, the fearful attachment style, which is defined by a negative view of self and others and leads to an avoidance of close relationships as a means to protect oneself against anticipated rejection. Finally, the dismissing attachment style, which is defined by a positive view of self and a negative view of others and goes along with the avoidance of close relationships as a means to safeguard oneself against being disappointed by others [
4]. Regarding individuals suffering from SAD, who tend to worry about being rejected and strongly desire to feel near to others, there is empirical evidence for an increased frequency of the preoccupied attachment style [
5,
6]. Given the importance of early experiences to the development of emotion regulation abilities, caregiver-child attachment relationships may be a significant precursor to the onset of emotion regulation difficulties [
7]. Thus, in insecure attachment relationships with inconsistent emotional availability caregivers are not readily available to soothe their children when distressed, which impacts children’s emotion regulation abilities. Against this backdrop there is growing evidence which suggests that attachment theory can be viewed as a theory of affect regulation, given that the regulation of emotions in the caregiver-child relationships lays the foundations for the self-regulation of emotions [
8,
9]. In line with this assumption several studies found a deficiency in the ability to regulate emotions in individuals with SAD [
10‐
13]. Our study primarily addressed specific difficulties in the experience and expression of anger as defined by the state-trait anger expression model [
14]. In the experience of anger it differentiates between state anger as the current experience of angry feelings ranging from mild annoyance to fury, and trait anger as a personality-based disposition to feel anger across a wide range of situations. With regard to anger expression it distinguishes between a behavioral tendency to direct anger inwards and conceal angry feelings, a tendency to direct anger outwards, and a tendency to control anger by avoiding annoyance or pacifying oneself through cognitive strategies. There is evidence that the anticipated fear of negative evaluation and rejection in SAD provokes anger across a wide range of situations corresponding to increased trait anger [
15,
14]. The increased experience of anger poses a great predicament for individuals with SAD, as the expression may increase the real or perceived threat of further negative evaluation [
16]. Therefore anger may evoke anxiety and is suppressed in order to reduce anxiety. In keeping with this assumption previous studies found higher levels of suppressed anger in SAD [
15‐
17].
Our study tested the following novel hypotheses: Individuals diagnosed with SAD in comparison to the control group are predicted to have moderate effect size reduced rates of secure attachment (I) and large effect size increased rates of preoccupied attachment style (II). With regard to anger, individuals with SAD show small effect size increased rates of trait-anger (III) and moderate effect size increased rates of anger suppression (IV). Furthermore, in linear regression analysis with attachment styles and anger dimensions as independent variables secure attachment style, preoccupied attachment style and anger suppression are significant cross-sectional predictors for the intensity of social anxiety (V). As outlined above mirroring and responding to the child’s affective state by the caregiver essentially constitutes the child’s attachment style, on which the child’s emotion regulation ability is fundamentally based. Within this framework we hypothesize that anger suppression partially mediates the association between preoccupied attachment and social anxiety (VI).