ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1622431
Impact of Self-Identity on Social Anxiety Among College Students: A Moderated Mediation Model
Provisionally accepted
- Civil Aviation Flight University of China, Guanghan, China
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Background: Social anxiety is a prevalent and impairing condition among college students, often interfering with academic performance, emotional well-being, and social functioning. Objective: This study aimed to test a moderated mediation model in which self-identity predicts social anxiety, with fear of negative evaluation (FNE) serving as a mediator and perceived social support acting as a moderator in the latter part of the pathway. Methods: A total of 328 college students (Mage = 19.48, SD = 1.02; 43.29% male) completed standardized self-report measures of self-identity, FNE, social anxiety, and perceived social support. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the proposed model. Results: Self-identity significantly negatively predicted social anxiety (β = -0.55, p < 0.001). FNE partially mediated this relationship, accounting for about half of the total effect. Furthermore, perceived social support weakened the association between FNE and social anxiety under high-support conditions (moderated effect: β = -0.14, p < 0.01). Conclusion: These findings suggest the potential value of integrative intervention strategies that promote self-identity, reduce fear of negative evaluation, and enhance perceived social support to mitigate social anxiety in college populations.
Keywords: social anxiety, self-identity, Negative evaluations, social support, college students
Received: 03 May 2025; Accepted: 16 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Guo, Zhang, Xue, Liu and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jiazhong Yang, Civil Aviation Flight University of China, Guanghan, China
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