College Students’ Contingent Self-esteem And Social Anxiety:the Mediating Effect Of Body Image And Restrictive Eating

BackgroundSocial anxiety is a widespread problem among college students due to their immature psychological development and lack of social experience.Social anxiety adversely affects the normal academic and interpersonal activities of college students.A review of the literature reveals a correlation between self-esteem and social anxiety.The contingent self-esteem is a new concept in the field of self-esteem research,where the level of individual self-esteem varies by external influences.The relationship between contingent self-esteem and social anxiety is explored in this paper,using body imagery and restrictive eating as mediating variables.Objective1.To clarify the relationship between contingent self-esteem,social anxiety,body image and restrictive eating.2.To explore whether body image and restrictive eating have mediating effects between contingent self-esteem and social anxiety.MethodIn this study,554 college students were selected by stratified cluster random sampling method as the research subjects.This study used the “Relation Based Self-Esteem Scale”,“Interaction Anxiousness Scale”,“Negative Physical Self Scale”,“Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire” as survey tools to investigate college students’ contingent self-esteem,social anxiety,body image and restrictive eating.The collected data were organized using SPSS 23.0 to analyze the reliability of the questionnaire,followed by descriptive statistical analysis,independent sample t-test,one-way ANOVA,correlation analysis matrix,and Process mediation model analysis.Result1.The contingent self-esteem of college students is significantly different when they are in a relationship,students who were in a relationship scored higher than those who were single（t=2.13,P=0.034）;Social anxiety is significantly different in gender and whether they are losing weight.The score of female students was higher than that of male students（t=-2.41,P=0.016）.Students who were losing weight scored significantly higher on social anxiety than those who were not（t=2.62,P=0.009）.2.Body image is significantly different in hometown origin and whether they are losing weight.Students from cities scored higher than those from rural areas（t=2.26,P=0.024）.Students who were losing weight scored significantly higher than those who were not（t=6.25,P<0.001）.Restrictive diet is significantly different in gender,hometown origin and whether they are losing weight.The score of female students was higher than that of male students（t=-3.79,P<0.001）.Students who were losing weight scored significantly higher than those who were not（t=4.73,P<0.001）.Students from cities scored higher than those from rural areas（t=2.91,P=0.004）.3.College students’ contingent self-esteem was positively correlated with body image（r=0.36,P<0.01）,restrictive eating（r=0.27,P<0.01）and social anxiety（r=0.45,P<0.01）.Social anxiety was positively correlated with body image（r=0.35,P<0.01）and restrictive eating（r=0.34,P<0.01）.Body image was positively correlated with restrictive eating（r=0.56,P<0.01）.4.College students’ contingent self-esteem（β=0.73,P<0.001）,body image（β=0.13,P<0.01）and restrictive eating（β=0.16,P<0.001）have positive predictive effects on social anxiety;College students’ contingent self-esteem has a positive impact on body image（β=0.34,P<0.001）and restrictive eating（β=0.09,P<0.05）;body image has positive predictive effects on restrictive eating（β=0.51,P<0.001）.5.Restrictive diet played a partial mediating role between contingent self-esteem and social anxiety（effect value: 0.04）;body image played a partial mediating role between contingent self-esteem and social anxiety（effect value: 0.01）;Body image and restrictive eating played a chain mediating role in contingent self-esteem and social anxiety（effect value: 0.03）.Conclusion1.The degree of social anxiety of female college students was higher than that of male college students;The degree of social anxiety of college students who were losing weight was higher than that of college students who were not losing weight.2.The level of contingent self-esteem and body image satisfaction and restrictive eating have important influence on college students’ social anxiety.3.College students’ contingency self-esteem further affects college students’ social anxiety level by acting on body image and restrictive eating.At the same level of contingency self-esteem,the more dissatisfied individuals were with themselves and the more restrictive eating behaviour they engaged in,the higher level of social anxiety was developed.