Effect of maternal anxiety, depression, acceptance and psychological control on students' social anxiety

Abstract

Objective To determine the current students' social anxiety status and maternal factors in school students(grade 5-7) in Harbin, and provided scientific guidance relevant to students' social anxiety. Methods 1526 mother-child pairs collected by random cluster sampling, children completed the social anxiety scale for children (SASC), security scale, coping strategies questionnaire(consist of ambivalence and avoidance subscale), acceptance scale and psychological control scale, and mothers completed the center for epidemiologic studies depression inventory(CES-D), self-rating anxiety scale(SAS). Results The total positive detection rate of social anxiety was 13.6%, there was no significantly difference between boys and girls (P>0.05); the positive detection rate of Grade 6 was higher than Grade 5 and Grade 7. There were positive correlation between social anxiety and mother's psychological control, mother's depression, mother's anxiety(r=0.228, 0.143, 0.122); negative correlation with mother's acceptance(r=-0.214). Linear regression indicated that only three variables (mother's psychological control, mother's acceptance, mother's depression) were at the P<0.05 level.The regression coefficients for the three variables were 1.557, -1.092 and 0.040, respectively. Conclusion Maternal highly psychological control, lowly acceptance and maternal anxiety depression all play a role in promoting the occurrence of students' social anxiety. Key words: Social anxiety; Maternal attachment; Psychological control; Acceptance; Anxiety and depression