Current cognitive models of social anxiety disorder (SAD) in adults indicate that negative self-images play a pivotal role in maintaining the disorder. However, little is known about the role of negative imagery in the maintenance of social anxiety for children and young people. We systematically reviewed studies that have investigated the association between imagery and social anxiety in children and young people. Four databases were searched for ‘social anxiety’ and related terms (including ‘social phobia’ and ‘performance anxiety’) combined with ‘imagery’, ‘representation*’, and ‘observer perspective’. The nine studies that met the inclusion criteria provided some evidence that children and young people with higher social anxiety report more negative, observer’s perspective images, and some evidence to support the cognitive models of SAD’s conceptualisation of imagery. Only two studies included samples with pre-adolescent children. The literature is limited by a number of methodological issues, including inconsistencies in, and a lack of good psychometric measures for, imagery in children and young people. More conclusive evidence is needed to develop significant and robust conclusions.

当前成年人的社交焦虑症（SAD）认知模型表明，负面的自我形象在维持该疾病中起着关键作用。但是，关于负像在维持儿童和年轻人社交焦虑中的作用知之甚少。我们系统地回顾了研究儿童和年轻人的图像与社交焦虑之间关系的研究。在四个数据库中搜索了“社交焦虑”和相关术语（包括“社交恐惧症”和“表现焦虑”），并结合了“意象”，“代表*”和“观察者视角”。符合纳入标准的9项研究提供了一些证据，证明社交焦虑程度较高的儿童和年轻人报告的负面信息，观察者的视角图像，还有一些证据支持SAD影像概念化的认知模型。只有两项研究包括青春期前儿童的样本。文献受到许多方法学问题的限制，包括儿童和年轻人的图像不一致以及缺乏良好的心理测量手段。需要更多的确凿证据来得出重要而可靠的结论。