Cultural Aspects of Social Anxiety Disorder: A Qualitative Analysis of Anxiety Experiences and Interpretation

Objective: anxiety is a complex phenomenon on which culture has a prominent influence. the present study aimed to investigate the cultural aspects of social anxiety disorder (sad) in an iranian population. method: a qualitative content analysis research was done to answer the study question. a total of 16 individuals with social anxiety disorder (six men and 10 women) were selected using purposeful sampling method (m = 24.43, sd = 4.56). the study was conducted in tehran, urmia, and sanandaj- iran. participants were from different ethnic backgrounds (lor, fars, turk, and kurd). data were analyzed by thematic analysis using an inductive method. results: analysis of participants’ records yielded five distinct categories with some subcategories, which are as follow: (1) anxiety experiences; (2) core beliefs; (3) reasons of being anxious; (4) effects of sad on life aspects; and (5) coping strategies. conclusion: it seems that symptoms of social anxiety and its underlying beliefs, causes and effects and coping strategies are almost experienced and interpreted in a way that could be the same as dsm-5 clinical presentation of social anxiety, with the exception that somatic symptoms are experienced by almost all participants.