Abstract

• The main purpose of this study was to study social skills and social interaction anxiety of high school students in Aunglan Township. The research design for the study was quantitative research design and descriptive survey method. A total of 900 students (449 males and 451 females) were selected from six selected high schools. To measure the social skills, Social Skills Questionnaire by Gresham and Elliott (1990) was used and Cronbach’s alpha was 0.952. And to measure the social interaction anxiety, Social Interaction Anxiety Scale was made by Mattick and Clarke (1998) and Cronbach’s alpha was 0.836. Both had to be answered on five-point Likert scales. After that, the data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, t test and ANOVA test. According to the result of independent samples t test, there were significant differences in social skills by gender but no significant differences by grade. Female students had higher social skills than those of male students. In social interaction anxiety, there were significant differences by gender but no significant difference by grade. Male students had higher social interaction anxiety than those of female students. Depending on the results of One-way ANOVA, there were significant differences in social skills by school locality. Students in urban and sub-urban schools had higher social skills than that of students in rural schools. Depending on the results of One-way ANOVA, there were significant differences in social interaction anxiety by school locality. Students in rural schools had higher social interaction anxiety than those of students in urban and sub-urban schools. PearsonProduct Moment correlation was conducted and it was found that social skills and social interaction anxiety of high school students in this study were significantly and negatively correlated (r= -.587, p<.001).