Test of an hypothesized structural model of the relationships between cognitive style and social anxiety: A 12-month prospective study

• Mediational model of two theories of cognitive vulnerability in the explanation of social anxiety.
• Longitudinal design of a robust sample of adolescents and young adults.
• Sample followed 1 year and assessed on three different occasions 6 months part.
• Use of a complete version of YSQS3 in the study of social anxiety disorder in youth.

The aim of this study was to test whether social looming cognitive style accounts for the predictive association between early maladaptive schema domains and social anxiety. We predicted that early maladaptive schema domains would predict the increase of social anxiety over time and that social looming would act as a mediator between schema domains and social anxiety. A three-wave longitudinal design was used. The participants (N = 471, 56.95% women) were Spanish adolescents and young adults aged between 16 and 25 years old (Mage = 17.81, SDage = 3.19). The results showed that three schema domains (impaired autonomy and performance, impaired limits, and other-directedness) predicted the increase in social anxiety and that LCS for social threat acted as a mediator between other-directedness and social anxiety at T3. These results are important to improve the knowledge of the cognitive mechanisms that are involved in the occurrence and development of social anxiety.