Effects of safety behaviour on the maintenance of anxiety and negative belief social anxiety disorder

Background: Safety behaviour plays an important role in the maintenance of social anxiety disorder (SAD). SAD patients engage in various safety behaviours in social situations in order to decrease the risk of negative evaluations from others. Aims: The present study examined the effect of safety behaviour on the maintenance of anxiety and negative belief in SAD by using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Methods: Participants were a healthy group (442) and a SAD group (46) who met the SAD criteria for DSM-IV and who had high scores of SAD symptoms. In the assumed maintenance model, independence variables were safety and avoidance behaviour and dependence variables were anxiety and negative belief. Results: This result showed that the SAD group significantly has more high scores than the healthy group in all scales of anxiety, negative belief and avoidance behaviour, expect for safety behaviour. The result of the multiple-group procedure indicated that safety behaviour contributes more strongly to anxiety and negative belief in the SAD group than in the healthy group. Conclusions: It is speculated that the SAD group have a stronger link between safety behaviour and negative belief than the healthy group, whereas frequency of the use of safety behaviour is equivalent between two groups. These results support the findings of previous studies.