Self-consciousness in female university students: the predictive role of social anxiety

To find out the degree and direction of correlation between social anxiety and self-consciousness, and to investigate the predictive role social anxiety plays in determining self-consciousness among female university students.

The cross-sectional study was conducted in six public and private sector universities of Lahore, Pakistan, from February to June 2019, and comprised female students aged 18-26 years. Data was collected using a demographic sheet in addition to the Social Anxiety Scale and the revised version of the Self-consciousness Scale. Data was analysed using SPSS 21.

There were 300 subjects with a mean age of 21.14±2.06 years. Age had significant inverse correlation with social anxiety (p<0.01), while no significant relation was found between age and self-consciousness. Private self-consciousness was positively correlated with public self-consciousness (p<0.01), evaluation anxiety (p<0.01) and interaction anxiety (p<0.05), while significant positive correlation was observed between public self-consciousness and all domains of social anxiety (p<0.01). Social anxiety was a strong positive predictor of self-consciousness (p<0.05).

Women experiencing elevated anxiety and distress during their social interactions or performing any task publically tended to be more self-conscious, self-critical and over-attentive to their actions.