Age differences in social inhibition among university students and the general population

The increased risk of social inhibition (SI) on internalizing psychopathology warrants insight into age and sex differences in adult SI to improve our understanding of (mal)adaptive SI at different ages across the lifespan. This cross-sectional study examined age differences in SI and its underlying facets and whether these are moderated by sex. The Social Inhibition Questionnaire was administered to 847 undergraduate students (Mage=20.4 ± 2.4; 72.4% women), and 2235 individuals from the general population (Mage=47.0 ± 16.4; 50.1% women). Categorical CFA using means and variance-adjusted WSLMV estimation was fitted to replicate the three-factor SI model. We estimated the differences in the latent higher order SI scores, compared the mean scores on the three latent SI facets between age groups, subsamples, and sex, and investigated the moderation effect of sex on age group differences. Highest SI levels were observed in the youngest age group (< 21 years old), and the lowest in age group 61–70 years old. The oldest age group showed higher SI scores compared to the 61–70 years old group, which seems to be driven by higher interpersonal sensitivity and behavioral inhibition scores in older men. We found higher interpersonal sensitivity scores in students, and in women, and higher social withdrawal scores in men. Overall, we found that the youngest age cohort had the highest social inhibition scores. Establishing norm scores to timely identify potential problematic SI levels related to psychopathology is warranted.