The Influence Of Perceived Discrimination On Social Anxiety In Junior High School Students:The Mediating Role Of Emotion Regulation Abilities And Intervention

Social anxiety is an emotional experience of apprehension,nervousness and even fear in social or work situations where one is noticed by others.Discrimination is a widespread social phenomenon,and the perception of discrimination by others is known as perceived discrimination,and almost every junior high school student has experienced discrimination of varying degrees and types,Individuals with high perceptions of discrimination experience fear of social situations,social anxiety and often emotional dysregulation as a result of being discriminated against by others.Emotion regulation is an important component of psychological development in junior high school students and is a key teaching component of mental health education in primary and secondary schools.Individuals with high emotion regulation skills have a facilitative effect on reducing social anxiety in individuals.Therefore,the first aim of this study was to investigate the current status and correlations of perceived discrimination,social anxiety and emotion regulation ability among junior high school students,and to examine the mediating role of emotion regulation ability in the relationship between perceived discrimination and social anxiety.On the basis of this study,an emotion regulation group counselling was conducted to explore the effectiveness of the intervention in reducing social anxiety among junior high school students with high perceived discrimination and social anxiety.The study has two parts: In Study one,to explore the relationship between the three and the mediating role of emotion regulation.the Perceived discrimination Questionnaire,the Social Anxiety Questionnaire and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire were used.967 questionnaires were distributed in three junior high schools in Hubei,Anhui and Hainan provinces.In Study two,to test whether emotion regulation-oriented group counselling could reduce social anxiety in individuals with high perceived discriminations,16 subjects ranked in the top 30% of perceived discrimination and social anxiety were selected and randomly assigned to an experimental group or a control group.The experimental group participated in a group counselling intervention once a week for ten weeks,while the control group received no intervention.At the end of the intervention,the experimental and control groups participated the post-training test session,the Perceived discrimination Questionnaire,Social Anxiety Questionnaire and the Emotion Regulation Skills Questionnaire were administered again.The results showed that:1.Negative correlations were found between perceived discrimination and total score of emotion regulation ability and emotion perception,emotion regulation selfefficacy,application of emotion regulation strategies,emotion control ability,and emotion regulation reflection ability.Positive correlations were found between perceived discrimination and social anxiety.2.Total score of Emotion regulation ability and emotion regulation self-efficacy,applied emotion regulation strategies,and emotion control ability were negatively related to social anxiety,and emotion perception and emotion appraisal ability were positively related to social anxiety.3.Emotion regulation ability plays a partial mediating role in perceived discrimination and social anxiety.4.After group counselling,compared with the control group,the experimental group reported lower social anxiety,supporting the effectiveness of emotion regulationbased group counselling intervention in reducing social anxiety in adolescents with high perceived discrimination.In conclusion,this study found that there was a correlation between perceived discrimination,social anxiety and emotion regulation ability,and that emotion regulation ability played a partial mediating role in this study.