Structural equation modeling of mindfulness skills, emotion regulation and anxiety sensitivity with social anxiety in Adolescent

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the structural relationships between mindfulness skills, emotion regulation and anxiety sensitivity with social anxiety in adolescents. The study population included all adolescents 12-14 years old in Isfahan city in the academic year 2015-2016, and finally 480 of them were randomly selected as the sample based on the Klein sample size estimation formula. For data gathering the following questionnaire were use. Emotion regulation checklist ((Shields, & Cicchetti, 1998)) , social anxiety (La Gerca & Lopez, 1998), child acceptance mindfulness measure (Baer, Smith, Gregory, Allen, 2005) and Anxiety Sensitivity Inventory (Silverman, Fleisig, Rabian, & Peterson, 1991). Data analysis was run by SPSS and AMOS software and path analysis method. Results showed significant relationships between social anxiety and emotion regulation (r=-0/22), mindfulness and social anxiety (r=-0/11) and anxiety sensitivity and social anxiety (r=0/41). Regression coefficients indicated that anxiety sensitivity predicted social anxiety by mediating role of emotion regulation (β=0/1) and also mindfulness skills were able to predict social anxiety by emotion regulation (β=0/04). So result demonstrated that emotion regulation is a good mediator between anxiety sensitivity and mindfulness with social anxiety.