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10.1 Appearance-related Social Anxiety and Avoidance
When entering the variables as described previously, 66.2% of the observed sample variation in
the DAS24 is accounted for by the regression model given in Table 9.1 and this effect is
statistically significant, = .662, F(16, 1038) = 127.191, MSE = 85.91, p < .001.
In the fitted model for DAS24 there are no significant effects attributable to living arrangements,
recruitment, or social comparison. There are relatively small but statistically significant gender
effects with females scoring 2.2 points higher on DAS 24 than males (p = .002).
In the regression model there are relatively strong and statistically significant negative
relationships between age (beta = -0.144, p < .001), optimism (beta = -0.199, p < .001), and
social acceptance (beta = -0.233, p < .001) with DAS24. Likewise there are relatively strong
and statistically significant positive relationships between FNE (beta = 0.131, p < .001), salience
(beta = 0.123, p < .001), valence (beta = 0.240, p < .001), appearance discrepancy (beta =
0.116, p < .001) and disguisability (beta = 0.123, p < .001).
There are smaller but statistically significant effects attributable to visibility of main area of
concern and for visibility when clothed; the direction of the effects is in the opposite direction to
that indicated by the bivariate analyses. After allowing for all the above mentioned effects, those
with a visible area of concern score lower on average on DAS24 than those without a visible
concern by 2.7 points (beta = -0.053, p = .007) and those reporting high levels of visibility when
clothed score lower than those with relatively lower levels of self-reported visibility (beta = -
0.085, p < .001).
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