Social Anxiety in Digital Teaching During the COVID-19 Pandemic

As elevated anxiety levels have been reported due to digital teaching, we investigated social and public speaking anxiety (PSA) in an online sample of 1,019 German students in digital teaching contexts. We adapted the self-report version of the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS-SR) to pandemic-related social distancing rules and developed the Questionnaire on Anxiety and Avoidance Behavior in Digital Teaching Environments (D-AAB). We assessed levels of PSA in digital and face-to-face teaching and compared students with low and high levels of social anxiety (SAD–and SAD+). SAD+ students were more prone to avoidance behavior with higher levels of PSA and expressed more pandemic-related mental health burdens than SAD– students. These findings may contribute to the development of disorder-specific support for students with social anxiety issues and improve the efficacy of digital teaching.