A natural social disruption produced by the attempted assassination of George Wallace provided an opportunity to conduct a field study concerned with the mediating effects of self‐esteem, birth‐order, sex, and social situation on the relationship between anxiety and interpersonal communication among a sample of high school students. Contrary to expectations based on previous research, the significant relationship between anxiety and affiliation, while affected by social situation, was not generally influenced or mediated by the other variables. Possible explanations for these findings are explored, and an overall causal model is suggested to account for the findi