Social anxiety can have an adverse effect on social connections, educational achievement, and wellbeing. However, the extent to which students stigmatize their peers with social anxiety disorder (SAD) in female educational settings remains unknown. This study investigated the relationship between SAD, peer-liking and stigma in a cohort of early adolescent girls. The sample was 103 sixth and seventh graders attending three girls’ schools in Australia. The students, aged between 10- and 13-years, were randomly allocated to either a control (n = 52) or experimental (n = 51) group. Participants completed an online survey while at school to examine their responses to one of two age-and-gender matched vignettes: a hypothetical peer with SAD (experimental condition), or without SAD (control condition). Contrary to expectations, group comparisons revealed that students with the SAD vignette liked their peer more than students with the non-SAD vignette. Also, students endorsed higher levels of pity, lower levels of fear, but similar levels of anger when considering their SAD (versus non-SAD) peer. In the SAD group, higher levels of pity were associated with greater peer-liking. The opposite pattern was evident in response to the non-SAD peer. Importantly, students discriminated less (preferred less social distance) in response to their peer with SAD. This points to the potential benefit of adolescent peer programs that aim to promote positive peer-relationships as a protective factor for students with SAD. Future research may examine gender and socio-economically diverse students to increase the confidence with which findings can be generalized to other educational settings.

社交焦虑会对社交关系、教育成就和幸福感产生不利影响。然而，在女性教育环境中，学生对患有社交焦虑症（SAD）的同龄人进行污名化的程度仍不清楚。这项研究调查了一群早期青春期女孩的 SAD、同伴喜爱和耻辱之间的关系。样本是澳大利亚三所女子学校的 103 名六年级和七年级学生。这些学生年龄在 10 岁到 13 岁之间，被随机分配到对照组 ( n  = 52) 或实验组 ( n  = 51)。参与者在学校期间完成了一项在线调查，以检查他们对两个年龄和性别匹配的小插图之一的反应：假设的同龄人患有 SAD（实验条件）或不患有 SAD（对照条件）。与预期相反，小组比较显示，具有 SAD 小插图的学生比具有非 SAD 小插图的学生更喜欢他们的同龄人。此外，当考虑到他们的 SAD（与非 SAD）同伴时，学生们认可更高程度的怜悯、更低程度的恐惧，但愤怒程度相似。在 SAD 群体中，更高程度的怜悯与更喜欢同龄人有关。对非 SAD 同伴的反应明显相反。重要的是，学生们对患有季节性情绪失调的同龄人的歧视较少（偏好较小的社交距离）。这表明青少年同伴计划的潜在好处是促进积极的同伴关系，作为患有季节性情感障碍的学生的保护因素。未来的研究可能会检查性别和社会经济多样化的学生，以增加将研究结果推广到其他教育环境的信心。