Effect of Parent–Child Attachment on College Students’ Social Anxiety: A Moderated Mediation Model

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between parent–child attachment and social anxiety in college students, as well as the mediating role of psychological resilience and the moderating role of online social support. In total, 614 college students were recruited by the cluster sampling method. The results showed that (1) parent–child attachment was negatively correlated with college students’ social anxiety and positively correlated with their psychological resilience, (2) psychological resilience played a mediating role between parent–child attachment and college students’ social anxiety, and (3) online social support regulated the first half and second half of the mediation process in which parent–child attachment affected college students’ social anxiety through psychological resilience. These findings revealed the mechanism of parent–child attachment affecting social anxiety, which had important theoretical and empirical value for enhancing the strength of college students’ psychological resilience and alleviating social anxiety.

Social Anxiety among College Students: Predictive Roles of Attachment Insecurity and Emotional Schemas

“…Arpacı, Baloglu, Kozan, Kesici, &2017), and social anxiety (e.g. Chen, Li, Zhang, & Liu, 2020;Manning, Dickson, Palmier-Claus, Cunliffe, & Taylor, 2017;Yu, Liu, Song, Fan, & Zhang, 2019). Vertue (2003) argued the theoretical model of attachment and social anxiety, emphasising that the internal working model of self and others may play a crucial role in developing social anxiety.…”

“…Vertue (2003) argued that negative internal working models of self are associated with social anxiety, whereas negative internal models of others are related to social avoidance, leading to dependence. Studies revealed significant associations between social anxiety and insecure attachment in recent years (e.g., Adams, Wrath, Mondal, & Asmundson, 2018;Yu, Liu, Song, Fan, & Zhang, 2019) and that internal working models of self and others which infants develop during the developmental period might have a prominent role in the development of social anxiety.…”

Effectiveness of Coping Strategies Program in Reducing the Rejection Sensitivity and Social Anxiety with College Students

“…Previous studies have shown that more than half (65.4%) of university students had moderate social anxiety, while nearly a quarter (22.4%) had severe levels of the disorder. Social anxiety not only seriously endangers the psychosocial adaptation, interpersonal communication, and academic achievement of college students but also leads to internalization and externalization problems such as depression and aggressive behaviors [5,27,37,38].…”

Relationship Between Parental Marital Conflict and Social Anxiety Symptoms of Chinese College Students: Mediation Effect of Attachment

“…The positive relationship of parental and peer attachment has been verified, and the mediation role of peer attachment linking parental attachment to adaptation performance of individuals (i.e., addictive behaviors; positive social adjustment, and anxiety) has also been confirmed previously (Gorrese, 2016 ; Yang et al, 2016 ; Davies et al, 2018 ). Furthermore, as noted before, poor attachment relationship quality has been regarded as a risk factor contributing to maladjustments of individuals, such as internet addiction (Deng et al, 2013a , b ; Yang et al, 2016 ) and social anxiety symptoms (Wu and Wang, 2014 ; Lu et al, 2015 ; Gorrese, 2016 ; Manes et al, 2016 ; Pan et al, 2016 ; Manning et al, 2017 ; Yu et al, 2019 ). Based on the theories and previous findings, it could be assumed that parental and peer attachment relationships were significantly related to social anxiety symptoms of college students.…”