A person-oriented approach to social anxiety and depression: latent profiles and emotional functioning in adults
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
ZHOU, JIANAN
Van Zalk, Nejra
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Objectives: Symptoms of social anxiety and depression often co-occur, but many questions remain about symptom-level co-occurrence and the heterogeneity of symptom presentations across individuals, as well as their emotional functioning. This study aimed to investigate the co-occurrence of social anxiety and depressive symptoms in adults and variations in emotional functioning linking symptom heterogeneity. Methods: This study used a person-oriented approach, Latent Profile Analysis (LPA), to identify distinct profiles (i.e., subgroups) in a UK adult sample (N = 222) varying in presentations of social anxiety and depressive symptoms. Further analyses examined between-profile differences in emotional functioning, including daily affect and emotion regulation. Results: Four profiles were identified: Comorbid (12.61%), Dysphoric (10.36%), Socially Anxious (36.94%), and Low Distress (40.09%), replicating the four-profile solution revealed in prior research on adolescents. The Comorbid subgroup reported the most pronounced emotional dysfunction, with higher daily negative affect, lower positive affect, and greater emotion dysregulation than the other three subgroups. The Low Distress subgroup reported the best emotional functioning. Conclusions: The cross-sectional study design restricts our ability to evaluate the long-term stability of the identified profiles. Nevertheless, this study illuminates the diverse ways social anxiety and depression intertwine, underscoring the necessity of transdiagnostic interventions that cater to a wide range of symptom patterns and emotional functioning.
Editor(s)
Noël, Xavier
Date Issued
2025-10-20
Date Acceptance
2025-10-06
Citation
Frontiers in Psychology, 2025, 16
ISSN
1664-1078
Publisher
Frontiers Media S.A.
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers in Psychology
Volume
16
Copyright Statement
© 2025 Zhou and van Zalk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
License URL
Subjects
daily affect
depressive symptoms
emotion regulation
Latent Profile Analysis
social anxiety
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
1600531
Date Publish Online
2025-10-20