The relationship between psychological  Suzhi  and social anxiety among Chinese adolescents: the mediating role of self-esteem and sense of security

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Background

High incidence and morbidity rates are found among adolescents with social anxiety disorder, a severe and harmful form of social phobia. Extensive research has been conducted to uncover the underlying psychological factors associated with the development and continuation of this disorder. Previous research has focused on single individual difference variables such as personality, cognition, or emotion; thus, the effect of an individual’s full psychological profile on social anxiety has rarely been studied. Psychological suzhi is a comprehensive psychological quality that has been promoted in Chinese quality-oriented education. This research aimed to explore how psychological suzhi affects Chinese adolescents’ social anxiety.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey study was carried out among 1459 middle school students (683 boys and 776 girls) from various middle schools in seven provinces of China. Psychological s uzhi, self-esteem, sense of security, and social anxiety were measured via four self-reported questionnaires: the Brief Psychological Suzhi Questionnaire for middle school students, the Chinese version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Security Questionnaire, and the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale.

Results

Analyses showed that psychological suzhi is positively related to self-esteem and sense of security, and it is negatively correlated with social anxiety. The results also revealed that self-esteem partially mediates the relationship between adolescents’ psychological suzhi and social anxiety, with self-esteem and sense of security serving as chain mediators in the relationship between psychological suzhi and social anxiety.

Conclusions

Results highlight that psychological suzhi is a protective factor against social anxiety. It can directly protect adolescents from social anxiety, and it also can protect them through affecting their self-esteem and sense of security. These results are discussed from the viewpoints of school leaders, psychology teachers, and school counsellors, who provide support to students to improve their social functioning within the school context. The findings of this study may provide new perspectives regarding the prevention and treatment of social anxiety.

Related collections

Most cited references 41

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

The impact of early adverse experiences on brain systems involved in the pathophysiology of anxiety and affective disorders.

Kelly Heim, C Nemeroff (1999)

The relative contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the development of the major psychiatric disorders has long been debated. Recently, considerable attention has been given to the observations that adverse experiences early in life predispose individuals to the development of affective and anxiety disorders in adulthood. Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is the central coordinator of the endocrinologic, autonomic, immunologic, and behavioral stress responses. When centrally administered, CRF produces many physiologic and behavioral changes reminiscent of both acute stress and depression. Moreover, CRF has also been implicated in the pathogenesis of a variety of anxiety disorders, mainly through CRF neurocircuits connecting the amygdala and the locus ceruleus. Clinical studies have provided convincing evidence for central CRF hypersecretion in depression, and, to a lesser extent, in some anxiety disorders. Evidence mainly from preclinical studies suggests that stress early in life results in persistent central CRF hyperactivity and increased stress reactivity in adulthood. Thus, genetic disposition coupled with early stress in critical phases of development may result in a phenotype that is neurobiologically vulnerable to stress and may lower an individual's threshold for developing depression and anxiety upon further stress exposure. This pathophysiologic model may provide novel approaches to the prevention and treatment of psychopathology associated with stress early in life.

0 comments Cited 81 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Record: found
Abstract: not found
Article: not found

Measurement of social-evaluative anxiety.

David Friend, I. Watson (1969)

0 comments Cited 81 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Quality of life impairment in generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, and panic disorder.

Terri L Barrera, Peter Norton (2009)

Interest in the assessment of quality of life in the anxiety disorders is growing. The present study examined quality of life impairments in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social phobia, and panic disorder. Results showed that individuals with these disorders reported less satisfaction with their quality of life than non-anxious adults in the community. However, the degree of quality of life impairment is similar across these three disorders. Additionally, comorbid depression, but not anxiety, was found to negatively impact quality of life in these individuals. Finally, diagnostic symptom severity was not found to influence quality of life, indicating that subjective measures of quality of life offer unique information on the effects of anxiety disorders.

0 comments Cited 72 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

All references

Author and article information

Contributors

Zhaoxia Pan: chaoxia830621@163.com

Dajun Zhang:

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0761-5118

1350949548 , zhangdj@swu.edu.cn

Tianqiang Hu: htqpsy@126.com

Yangu Pan: panyg@swufe.edu.cn

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health

Title: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1753-2000

Publication date (Electronic): 13 December 2018

Publication date PMC-release: 13 December 2018

Publication date Collection: 2018

Volume: 12

Electronic Location Identifier: 50

Affiliations

[1 ]GRID grid.263906.8, Faculty of Psychology, Research Center for Mental Health Education, , Southwest University, ; Chongqing, 400715 China

[2 ]GRID grid.440813.a, Faculty of Education Science, , Kaili University, ; Kaili, 556001 China

[3 ]GRID grid.443347.3, Research Institute of Social Development, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, ; Chengdu, 611130 China

Author information

Dajun Zhang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0761-5118

Article

Publisher ID: 255

DOI: 10.1186/s13034-018-0255-y

PMC ID: 6292172

PubMed ID: 30559836

SO-VID: 6803bee4-a85b-4ec5-a714-8c3ff5c89f2c

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 9 March 2018

Date accepted : 22 November 2018

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry

Keywords: adolescents,psychological suzhi,self-esteem,sense of security,social anxiety

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry

Keywords: adolescents, psychological suzhi, self-esteem, sense of security, social anxiety

The relationship between psychological Suzhi and social anxiety among Chinese adolescents: the mediating role of self-esteem and sense of security

Read this article at