Emotional-Evolutional Model of social anxiety in university student

Abstract

In recent years, the studies of social anxiety in university students have become of particular importance given its disabling impact over social adjustment and psychological well-being. Because of the lack of predictive models with empirical support about this issue in university students, the present research had the objective of developing an explanatory model of this phenomenon with principles based on attachment theory and the theories of emotional regulation. We worked with a sample of 438 university students and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for data analysis. We produced an explanatory model which presented appropriate adjustment indexes (CFI =.95; GFI= .95; RMSEA = .05). In this model, the predictive role of expectations of social rejection and the difficulties in emotion regulation in the etiology of social anxiety are clear. These factors are in turn influenced by the fear of abandonment linked to internal working models of insecure attachment of development in early childhood. Significant differences were found in favour of women in percentages of variance explained in social anxiety and expectations of social rejection.