The Relationship Between Social Competence and Social Anxiety in Adolescents: Modelling the Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of womans and Family studies, Faculty of social sciences and Economics, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran. Iran.

10.48308/apsy.2024.237001.1708

Abstract

Aim: Effective approaches to addressing mental health challenges faced by adolescents require a deep understanding of the factors contributing to optimal development, well-being, and prosperity. Therefore, in this research, the researchers insisted on the mediating role of emotion regulation with the aim of predicting the social anxiety of adolescents through their social competence.
 
 Method: In this correlational research, 449 adolescents (251 girls and 198 boys) aged 14 to 17 years who were selected using multistage sampling method participated. Adolescents responded to the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (Puklek, 2004), Social Competence Questionnaire (Zhou & Ee, 2012) and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross & John, 2003). In this research, in order to test the causal model of relative mediation, the statistical method of structural equation modeling was used.
 
Results: The results of this statistical method showed that the assumed model had a good fit with the data. All the path coefficients between the latent variables were statistically significant and accounted for 50% of the variance of the scores of social anxiety through social competence and emotion regulation.
 
 Conclusion: In total, the results showed that social competence as a broad characteristic with the simultaneous inclusion of multiple cognitive, emotional, motivational and behavioral aspects and realms, takes care of adolescents against internalizing problems such as social anxiety.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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