The Relationship Between Social Anxiety Depressive Symptoms And Loneliness Among Middle School Students

ObjectiveThis investigation was to study the present situation of the social anxiety,depressive symptoms and loneliness of middle school students and analyze the correlation among the three variables.To explore the mediating effect of loneliness between depressive symptoms and social anxiety,and to provide a theoretical basis for the community and school for middle school students mental health.MethodThis study used convient and random sampling method to select 1732 students from a middle school in April to May 2017.The demographic questionnaire,Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents,the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale and Loneliness Questionnaire for Adolescents employed to evaluate the general demographic characteristics,social anxiety,depressive symptoms and loneliness.Date descriptive analysis,test,anova,person correlation analysis was conducted by SPSS 21.0 and Process Bootstrap was applied to verify the mediating effects of loneliness.Moreover,a structural equation model was constructed using AMOS 22.0 to further verify the mediating effect.Results1.The social anxiety score of middles school students was(23.91±9.08).Different grades,whether student leaders,whether onlychild,whether family harmony middle school students social anxiety score difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).2.The depressive symptoms score of students was(17.70±10.22).Different genders,different grades,whether student leaders,whether family harmony middle school students depressive symptoms score difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).3.The loneliness score of middles school students was(33.23±11.92);Different grades,whether student leaders,whether family harmony middle school students lonesiness score difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).4.The total score and scores of each dimension of Depressive symptoms and was positively correlated with loneliness total score and each dimension score(r=0.226~0.518,P<0.01);the total score and scores of each dimension of social anxiety was positively correlated with loneliness total score and each dimension score(r=0.196~0.346,P<0.01);the scores of depressive symptoms and each dimension were positively correlated with the scores of social anxiety,social avoidance and distress in unfamiliar environment and social avoidance and distress in general environment(r=0.104~0.411,P<0.01),the scores of the dimensions of fear of negation were positively correlated with the scores of depression,depression emotion,somatic symptom and interpersonal relationship(r=0.256~0.296,P<0.01).5.The total effect from social anxiety to depressive symptoms was(?=0.463,LLCI=0.411,ULCI=0.515);the direct effect from social anxiety to depressive symptoms was(?=0.299,LLCI=0.246,ULCI=0.352);the total indirect effect from social anxiety to depressive symptoms was(?=0.164,LLCI=0.135,ULCI=0.196);the indirect effect via family loneliness was(?=0.065,LLCI=0.045,ULCI=0.090);the indirect effect via friendship loneliness was(?=0.026,LLCI=0.010,ULCI=0.045);the indirect effect via collective loneliness was(?=0.073,LLCI=0.055,ULCI=0.095).Loneliness plays an intermediary role between social anxiety and depressive symptoms.Conclusions1.High-grade,non-student leaders,non-only child and family discord middle school students have high social anxiety.High-grade,non-student leaders and family discord middle school students have high depressive symptoms and loneliness2.The partly correlations among social anxiety,depressive symptoms and loneliness among middle school students were found.3.Social anxiety and loneliness could influence the depressive symptoms.Family loneliness,friendship loneliness and collective loneliness were partial mediators between social anxiety and depressive symptoms,and the effect of collective loneliness is biggest.