The Role of Traumatic Experiences and Posttraumatic Stress on Social Anxiety in a Youth Sample in Lithuania

Emerging adulthood is a developmental stage with an increased vulnerability to mental disorders. Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is highly prevalent anxiety disorder especially among adolescents and young adults. Furthermore, SAD is highly comorbid with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of SAD, life-time traumatic experiences and PTSD among Lithuanian young adults studying at the Universities. We also aimed to search for associations between social anxiety, traumatic experiences, and posttraumatic stress in our sample. In total 590 young adults (67.7% female), aged 20 years on average and studying at the Universities in Lithuania were recruited for this study. Self-report measures were used to measure SAD and PTSD. SAD was measured using the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), and PTSD was measured using the Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R). SAD prevalence based on SPIN cut-off >26 in our sample was 15.3%, life-time trauma exposure was 67.5%. No association between accumulative trauma exposure and SAD was found. SAD symptoms were highly correlated with PTSD symptoms. Comorbidity between SAD and PTSD was high, with 32.2% cases of PTSD in SAD group. We found high comorbidity between SAD and PTSD in our study among young adults. Further studies are needed to explore development of SAD and PTSD in longitudinal studies.