Recreational roleplay and social anxiety: the mediating role of self-esteem, perceived social support and resilience

Social anxiety is a prevalent disorder characterised by a fear of negative evaluation in social situations. However, traditional treatments of social anxiety often result in high dropout rates and relapse rates. Recreational roleplay, a promotion-focused intervention that aims to enhance an individu...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lee, Jun Hong
Other Authors: Annabel Chen Shen-Hsing
Format: Final Year Project (FYP)
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165897
_version_ 1811683398310166528
author Lee, Jun Hong
author2 Annabel Chen Shen-Hsing
author_facet Annabel Chen Shen-Hsing
Lee, Jun Hong
author_sort Lee, Jun Hong
collection NTU
description Social anxiety is a prevalent disorder characterised by a fear of negative evaluation in social situations. However, traditional treatments of social anxiety often result in high dropout rates and relapse rates. Recreational roleplay, a promotion-focused intervention that aims to enhance an individual’s overall wellbeing while reducing one’s social anxiety, has shown promise in improving Theory of Mind (TOM), self-efficacy, and reduce anxiety. Despite this, the specific mechanisms behind recreational roleplay that produce such beneficial effects have not been investigated, causing a literature gap. It has been theorised that recreational roleplay possesses three main psychosocial processes — identity alteration, scenario building, and the establishment of communitas. This study sought to investigate three related variables (self-esteem, perceived social support, resilience) that are comparable in nature to these psychosocial processes, which also have an inverse relationship with social anxiety. These variables were thus tested as mediators in the relationship between recreational roleplay and social anxiety. A total of 270 participants participated in an online survey, evaluating recreational roleplay experience, overall anxiety symptom severity, self-esteem, resilience and perceived social support. Results found that none of the hypothesized relationships were observed and the potential explanation for these null findings were discussed. Nonetheless, this study highlighted several limitations in light of the less-researched field of recreational roleplay as an intervention. This can then be utilised as a foundation for future studies to further investigate the efficacy of recreational roleplay as an intervention against social anxiety.
first_indexed 2024-10-01T04:12:06Z
format Final Year Project (FYP)
id ntu-10356/165897
institution Nanyang Technological University
language English
last_indexed 2024-10-01T04:12:06Z
publishDate 2023
publisher Nanyang Technological University
record_format dspace
spelling ntu-10356/1658972023-04-16T15:31:44Z Recreational roleplay and social anxiety: the mediating role of self-esteem, perceived social support and resilience Lee, Jun Hong Annabel Chen Shen-Hsing School of Social Sciences AnnabelChen@ntu.edu.sg Social sciences::Psychology Social anxiety is a prevalent disorder characterised by a fear of negative evaluation in social situations. However, traditional treatments of social anxiety often result in high dropout rates and relapse rates. Recreational roleplay, a promotion-focused intervention that aims to enhance an individual’s overall wellbeing while reducing one’s social anxiety, has shown promise in improving Theory of Mind (TOM), self-efficacy, and reduce anxiety. Despite this, the specific mechanisms behind recreational roleplay that produce such beneficial effects have not been investigated, causing a literature gap. It has been theorised that recreational roleplay possesses three main psychosocial processes — identity alteration, scenario building, and the establishment of communitas. This study sought to investigate three related variables (self-esteem, perceived social support, resilience) that are comparable in nature to these psychosocial processes, which also have an inverse relationship with social anxiety. These variables were thus tested as mediators in the relationship between recreational roleplay and social anxiety. A total of 270 participants participated in an online survey, evaluating recreational roleplay experience, overall anxiety symptom severity, self-esteem, resilience and perceived social support. Results found that none of the hypothesized relationships were observed and the potential explanation for these null findings were discussed. Nonetheless, this study highlighted several limitations in light of the less-researched field of recreational roleplay as an intervention. This can then be utilised as a foundation for future studies to further investigate the efficacy of recreational roleplay as an intervention against social anxiety. Bachelor of Social Sciences in Psychology 2023-04-16T04:22:07Z 2023-04-16T04:22:07Z 2023 Final Year Project (FYP) Lee, J. H. (2023). Recreational roleplay and social anxiety: the mediating role of self-esteem, perceived social support and resilience. Final Year Project (FYP), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165897 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165897 en application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
spellingShingle Social sciences::Psychology
Lee, Jun Hong
Recreational roleplay and social anxiety: the mediating role of self-esteem, perceived social support and resilience
title Recreational roleplay and social anxiety: the mediating role of self-esteem, perceived social support and resilience
title_full Recreational roleplay and social anxiety: the mediating role of self-esteem, perceived social support and resilience
title_fullStr Recreational roleplay and social anxiety: the mediating role of self-esteem, perceived social support and resilience
title_full_unstemmed Recreational roleplay and social anxiety: the mediating role of self-esteem, perceived social support and resilience
title_short Recreational roleplay and social anxiety: the mediating role of self-esteem, perceived social support and resilience
title_sort recreational roleplay and social anxiety the mediating role of self esteem perceived social support and resilience
topic Social sciences::Psychology
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165897
work_keys_str_mv AT leejunhong recreationalroleplayandsocialanxietythemediatingroleofselfesteemperceivedsocialsupportandresilience