ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Social Difficulties and Anxiety in Youth: The Role of Family Cultural Values in Mexico and Italy
Provisionally accepted
- Universita degli Studi di Padova Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Padua, Italy
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Children and adolescents who experience social anxiety might face challenges in their social skills, with negative consequences for their quality of life. Contextual factors such as family cultural values may impact the relationship between these variables. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the association between social anxiety and social difficulties in Mexican and Italian samples, considering the possible influence of family cultural values (i.e., familism, traditional gender roles). The study involved 537 Mexican, and 541 Italian parents of children and adolescents aged between 6 and 18 years, who completed an online survey on their children's skills and anxiety, and their own family values. The results suggested that in both countries, social anxiety was positively linked to social difficulties. However, this association was attenuated by higher levels of familism while exacerbated by higher levels of traditional gender roles. Psychoeducational programs should inform parents on the key role of family values in shaping children's social and emotional functioning.
Keywords: cross-cultural study, Social difficulties, social anxiety, Family cultural values, familism, Traditional gender roles
Received: 06 Aug 2025; Accepted: 31 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Galán Vera, Lievore, Moscardino and Mammarella. 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:
Ingrid Zugey Galán Vera, ingridzugey.galanvera@studenti.unipd.it
Irene Cristina Mammarella, irene.mammarella@unipd.it
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.