A Correlational Study between Social Anxiety, Filipino Concept of Hiya and Peer Relations among First Year Public High School Students

Abstract

Social anxiety is said to be “the stage fright of everyday life.” It is defined by Leary and Kowalski (1995: p.2) as “those feelings of nervousness, self-consciousness, uncertainty, and dread” that people sometimes feel “before and during encounters with other people.” In the same manner, Schlenker & Leary (1982: p.6) defines social anxiety as the anxiety resulting “from the prospect or presence of interpersonal evaluation in real or imagined social settings.” Because of such concerns of being evaluated, social anxiety is also said to be associated with self-presentation motives. The present study explores the relationship between the occurrence of social anxiety and the Filipino concept of Aya. Some of the characteristic features of social anxiety coincide with the behavioral manifestations of hiya, and both are concerned with interpersonal evaluation. Hiya, which is actually a Filipino norm instead of value (Jocano, 1992), motivates the Filipino to behave towards social approval, acceptance by a group, and belonging to a group. Filipinos believe that they must live up to the expectations to gain approval and acceptance in their social group. Failure to do so may bring shame to the individual and to the individual’s family. This study also examines the unique situation of adolescents with regard to the developmental task of establishing sound peer relations and its possible relationship with the occurrence of social anxiety and the practice of the Filipino concept of hiya. The adolescent years are considered as the turbulent years in the life of an individual because the process of identity-formation occurs during this stage. The establishment of sound peer relations contributes greatly to the success of the identity-formation of the adolescents. The present study employed a cross-sectional and correlational research design to study the occurrence of social anxiety among first year public high school students, male and female alike, and its associations with the Filipino concept of hiya and the students’ established peer relations. 120 first year high school students from 3 public high schools from the province of Leyte served as the study population for this research. There were 47 males and 73 females, ages ranging from 11 to 17 years old. Social anxiety, at different levels of intensity, is considerably prevalent among first year public high school students. A big bulk of the respondents - 92.5% Lo and 3.3%Hi — reported feelings of social anxiety, which may lead to inhibition and even withdrawal in social situations. With regard to the manifestation of the concept of hiya, 60.5% of the respondents exhibited an average practice of the characteristic behaviors of hiya. Like social anxiety, common understanding of Aya as shame and embarrassment renders students subdued from venturing into different things such as joining new clubs, engaging in a new sport, and befriending a seatmate. Among the 120 respondents, 66 of them perceived themselves to be accepted and well liked by their peers. Also, 77 of the respondents reported a high quality of their friendship with persons they consider as their best friends. This implies that it is not really the idea of general acceptance as manifested by their inclusion in groups that is greatly affected by social anxiety, but more in the degree of participation. Socially anxious students may be able to join a group either by choice or by circumstances, but they would more often than not remain as passive members of the group. The correlation coefficient, using Pearson product-moment correlation, between social anxiety and general acceptance is 0.063; between social anxiety and friendship quality 0.051. Pearson product-moment correlation between Aya and social anxiety is 0.391. Trying to determine the relationship between the occurrence of social anxiety, peer relations, and the practice of the Filipino concept of Aiya among public high school freshmen, a multiple correlation of 0.391 and 0.399 was established. As in the other correlations, this is quite significant although a bit weak. Social anxiety and the practice of hiya may be influencing the thoughts and behaviors of individuals, but they do not severely influence the maintenance of peer relations as manifested through the perceived general acceptance of peers, and friendship quality among best friends. Social anxiety and hiya may render individuals reserved and inhibited to explore new ideas and things, but such negative effects on interpersonal relationships could be more a characteristic of relations with casual acquaintances, strangers, and authority figures, rather than close friendships with persons they consider as their best friends.