Social Anxiety Disorder among Children at Gofermeda Sub City, Hosanna Town, Ethiopia: Prevalence and Associated Factors

Abstract

Social anxiety disorder is a disabling anxiety disorder characterized by an extreme fear of unconstructive estimation in public situations. Human beings are social creatures. Accordingly, fear of social situations can be severely disabling. This study aimed at exploring the prevalence and factors associated with social anxiety disorder among children. The study employed cross-sec- tional descriptive survey. In this study (n = 300) out of 403 total population were selected randomly. Psychometric screening questionnaire administered and the association between social anxiety disorder with selected socio- demographic variables and victimization in children (aged 12 - 17) was investigated. Both descriptive and inferential statistics like, Frequencies distribution, univariate, bivariate and multivariate methods were used to analyse the collected data. In multivariate analysis, multiple linear regressions were used to see the predictive power of associated factors of social anxiety disorder. Besides, with these statistical method prevalence and the associated risk factors between demographic variables and victimization factors of social anxiety disorder were analysed. In this study, the prevalence of Self-reported social anxiety disorder among children was 63%. From total sample of respondents 33% belongs age group below 15 years and the remaining 67% belongs age group above 15 years. This study indicated that, as the age of children increases prevalence of social anxiety disorder increases and in line with this, the higher prevalence of social anxiety disorder was found to be among children aged above 15 years. Females reported social anxiety disorder to a significantly higher degree than males in all age groups. Experiences of peer victimization, maltreatment and sexual victimization were also significantly related to social anxiety disorder. The study generally revealed, social anxiety disorder was associated with female gender, higher age group, low educational status, low income level of parent, experiences of peer victimization, maltreatment and sexual victimization. We suggest that mental health service should be well organized and delivered accordingly and School counselling professionals, teachers and parents need to have a knowledge about social anxiety and effective interventions strategies has to be framed to help children and parents overcome social anxiety disorder.