The Relationship Between Self-esteem And Social Anxiety Of College Students:a Moderated Mediation Model

Social anxiety is a psychological state of tension,fear and anxiety produced by individuals in the face of necessary social situations.Due to the impact of the epidemic,college campus life was mainly conducted online.College students may experience maladjustment and anxiety when returning to campus for offline activities.According to ecological systems theory,individuals are in a series of nested and interactive system environment structure,and environment directly or indirectly affects individual development.Researches had shown that self-esteem is related to school resilience and can significantly predict social anxiety.School,as the main place for students to study and live,will affect students’ sense of school community and social anxiety.The difference in empathy level also affects how they feel toward school.Based on existing relevant studies,this study adopts questionnaire method and semi-structured interview method to explore the relationship between self-esteem and social anxiety of college students,and examines the mediating role of sense of school community and the moderating role of empathy.This study consists of two parts,specifically as follows:Study 1 used the questionnaire method,using the Self-esteem Scale,Interaction Anxiousness Scale,Classroom and School Community Inventory and Interpersonal Reactivity Index.And 668 college students in Guangzhou participated in this study.The results are as follows:(1)There are significant differences in the self-esteem in gender,place of origin,onlychild or not,cadre experience and political status.There are significant differences in social anxiety in gender,grade,place of origin,only-child or not,cadre experience,community experience and political status.There are significant differences in sense of school community in gender,place of origin,only-child or not,cadre experience,community experience and political status.There are significant differences in empathy in gender and cadre experience.(2)Self-esteem has a significant negative predictive effect on social anxiety,and a significant positive predictive effect on sense of school community.Sense of school community has a significant negative predictive effect on social anxiety.(3)Sense of school community plays a mediating role in the relationship between selfesteem and social anxiety.(4)Empathy plays a moderating role in the relationship between self-esteem and sense of school community.In study 2,semi-structured interview method was used to further explore the relationship between self-esteem,social anxiety,sense of school community and empathy,aiming to provide enlightenment for how to reduce social anxiety of college students.In study 2,7 college students who participated in study 1 were interviewed,and Nvivo12.0 was used for analysis.The results of study 2 verify the relationship between the variables in study 1.At the same time,it is found that establishing good interpersonal relationship,improving campus atmosphere and providing psychological counseling are effective ways to reduce college students’ social anxiety.This study also discusses the practical implications of the research findings.At the school level,campus cultural atmosphere,association construction,teacher-student interaction,psychological counseling,and empathy intervention are the aspects to reduce the social anxiety of college students.