The relationship of shyness and neuroticism with social anxiety: The mediating role of effortful control

The current study aimed at investigating the relationship of shyness and neuroticism with social anxiety taking into account the mediating role of effortful control. The research method was descriptive-correlational of structural equation modeling. The population included all high school students (adolescents) in the cities of Tehran province studying in one of the public schools of these cities in the year ۲۰۲۱. The sample was selected from the cities of Tehran province by multi-stage cluster sampling (۱۹۷ girls and ۲۱۰ boys). Four standard questionnaires including Revised Cheek-Briggs Shyness Scale (۱۹۹۰), Short form of Five Personality Factors Questionnaire (۲۰۰۶), Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (۱۹۹۸) and Effortful Control Scale (۲۰۰۳) were used to collect data. The data were analyzed in two sections: descriptive statistics using SPSS۲۳ software and inferential statistics using structural equation modeling in Amos software. The results revealed that only the relationship between shyness with social anxiety (β = ۰.۴۶, t = ۵.۰۸۱, sig = ۰.۰۰۰) and shyness with effortful control (β = -۰.۵۴, t = ۵.۹۸۵, sig = ۰.۰۰۰) were significant (positively and negatively, respectively). Effortful control does not mediate the effect of neuroticism on social anxiety and the effect of shyness on social anxiety. Correspondingly, neuroticism has no effect on social anxiety. Conversely, the whole model comprising the combination of shyness, neuroticism, and effortful control variables could explain social anxiety (R۲ = ۲۷.۴%) and the model had an acceptable fit.

Keywords:

social anxiety , adolescents , Effortful control Shyness , Neuroticism