The relationship between social anxiety and intellectual abilities in Spanish students of Compulsory Secondary Education

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between social anxiety and intellectual abilities (verbal comprehension, spatial visualization, reasoning, numerical calculation and word fluency) in a sample of 2,022 Spanish adolescents (51.1% male) from 12 to 16 years. Social anxiety was assessed using the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) and the Primary Mental Abilities Test (PMA) was administered for the analysis of intellectual abilities. Results showed that students with high scores on social anxiety have lower scores on verbal comprehension, spatial visualization and word fluency than their peers with low social anxiety. Also, results obtained by logistic regression analysis showed that, on the one hand, social anxiety is a negative predictor of these abilities and, on the other hand, students are less likely to have high social anxiety as the subscale scores of Word Fluency and Spatial Visualization increase. The relevance of the theoretical and practical implications of the relationship between social anxiety and intelligence in adolescence is discussed.