Body Dissatisfaction and Social Anxiety among Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Model of Feeling of Inferiority, Family Cohesion and Friendship Quality

Abstract

Previous research has documented that body dissatisfaction is positively related to social anxiety. However, little is known about the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relation. Based on person-environment interaction theory, this study aimed to examine the chain mediation effect of feeling of inferiority and family cohesion in the relationship between body dissatisfaction and social anxiety among adolescents and whether this mediating process was moderated by friendship quality. A total of 972 students (M = 15.77, SD = 0.856) were enrolled in this study. All participants completed questionnaires regarding adolescent body dissatisfaction, feeling of inferiority, family cohesion, friendship quality and social anxiety. Our study found that body dissatisfaction was positively associated with social anxiety. Feeling of inferiority and family cohesion were found to play a chain-mediated role in the relation between body dissatisfaction and social anxiety. In addition, friendship quality plays a moderating role in the relationship between body dissatisfaction and social anxiety. According to the person-environment interaction theory, this study not only confirms the effect of body dissatisfaction on social anxiety in a collectivist culture, but also reveals the mechanism of the role of individual characteristics (feeling of inferiority) and external environmental factors (family cohesion) in the relationship between body dissatisfaction and social anxiety, and the moderating effect of friendship quality on the whole mechanism. These findings show lights on how body dissatisfaction is associated with social anxiety in adolescents.