Social exclusion and social anxiety among Chinese undergraduate students: Fear of negative evaluation and resilience as mediators

Abstract

This study investigated how fear of negative evaluation and resilience fi.mction as mediators in the association between social exclusion and social anxiety among Chinese undergraduate students. Participants (n = 876; female= 64.7%; freshman= 69.4%; mean age= 19.6 years, SD = 0.62 years) completed self-report measures evaluating social exclusion, fear of negative evaluation, resilience, and interaction anxiousness. Results revealed that social exclusion was associated with higher social anxiety, especially among male students (mean= 1.921) as compared to female students (mean= 1.7887). In terms of social anxiety and fear of negative evaluation, female students reported higher levels of both than male students. However, with reference to resilience, no significant sex differences were noted. Freshman students had the lowest level of social anxiety as compared to other grade students. Fear of negative evaluation meditated the association between social exclusion and social anxiety to be 4.50% higher accounting for 26.92% of the total mediation effect. By contrast, resilience was a buffer in the social exclusion and social anxiety relationship. Specifically, resilience as a buffer accounted for 3.71% lower social anxiety and 18.63% of the total mediation effect. These findings that suggest social exclusion is a risk for social anxiety, compounded by negative self-evaluation. Resilience training could be a prevention intervention for undergraduate students facing social anxiety.