The Effect Of Negative Physical Self Of Appearance On Depression In Adolescents: The Serial Mediating Role Of Social Anxiety And Attentional Bias

Adolescence is a period of rapid physical and mental development for individuals,with high self-awareness,rich and unstable emotions.During this process,it is easy to experience various emotional problems,such as depression.Previous studies have shown that negative physical self appearance,as an important predictor of adolescent depression,is closely related to the occurrence and development of depression.Therefore,in order to investigate the impact mechanism of negative physical self on depression based on appearance,this study will explore the sequential mediating effect of social anxiety and attention bias between negative physical self and depression from the perspectives of emotional and cognitive factors,such as information processing theory based on body image,cognitive theory of social anxiety,and cognitive theory of depression,in order to regulate negative emotions in adolescents and promote their mental health development.The study consists of two parts.Study 1 explored the mediating role of social anxiety between negative physical self appearance and depression based on emotional factors.Using the Negative Physical Self Scale Appearance Scale,Adolescent Social Anxiety Scale,and Self rated Depression Scale to test 662 middle school students.Study2 explored the sequential mediating role of social anxiety and attention bias in the relationship between negative physical self and depression based on cognitive factors.Sixty middle school students were tested using the scale of Study 1 and three behavioral experiments based on the point detection paradigm.The results show that:(1)There are significant differences in negative physical self in terms of grade and student origin;There are significant differences in social anxiety among students in terms of gender,grade,and place of origin;There are significant gender differences in depression.(2)There is a significant positive correlation between the four variables of negative physical self,social anxiety,attention bias,and depression.(3)Negative physical self can not only directly predict depression,but also indirectly affect depression through the mediating effect of social anxiety.(4)Social anxiety and negative information attention bias(negative appearance word attention bias,low attractiveness face attention bias)play a sequential mediating role between appearance negative physical self and depression.The research results indicate that adolescents with higher negative evaluations of appearance have a higher tendency towards depression;The negative physical self of appearance affects depression through a separate mediating effect of social anxiety;The negative physical self of appearance affects depression through a sequence mediating effect of social anxiety and negative information attention bias.