Distinct facets of other-oriented social cognition show differential associations with internalizing symptoms in young women with low subjective social status

Social hierarchy exerts widespread influences on human health and cognition. Other-oriented social cognitive processes may be particularly relevant for individuals in low social status positions as they navigate their social environments, and some of these processes may also be associated with internalizing difficulties. Given gender differences in both internalizing difficulties and social cognition, it is important to examine these associations among young women of low social status. In this study, we assessed associations between multiple dimensions of other-oriented processing and internalizing difficulties in 300 young women. Greater uncertainty about mental states was associated with symptoms of generalized anxiety, social phobia, social interaction anxiety, and depression, and remained associated with all four outcomes after accounting for rumination and other significant predictors. Personal Distress was initially associated with all four outcomes but remained associated with social phobia and social interaction anxiety in the final models. Hypermentalizing and a greater tendency to imagine oneself experiencing the feelings and actions of fictional characters were also associated with social phobia. Notably, visual perspective-taking and self-reported perspective-taking in everyday life were not associated with any internalizing symptom questionnaires. Together, these findings suggest that associations between other-oriented social cognition and internalizing symptoms depend on the specific cognitive or affective process assessed. These findings contribute to growing evidence that heightened internalizing risk among young women of low social status may be linked not to greater other-oriented processing broadly, but to specific dimensions of other-oriented cognition and affect.