The Impact Of Negative Life Events On Social Anxiety Of Middle School Students

Social anxiety refers to the tendency of individuals to experience anxious emotions and avoid behaviors when they are in interpersonal situations.According to the Guidelines for Mental Health Education in Elementary and Middle Schools(revised 2012),social anxiety has become one of the most common mental health problems among elementary and middle school students.Social anxiety can harm students’ social communication functions and even affect their physical and mental health,leading to social anxiety disorder.Previous research has shown that negative life events are one of the triggers of social anxiety,and that self-esteem and emotional regulation are the main self-efficacy of an individual,as an individual’s internal resources play a protective role in individual mental health.To investigate the influence of negative life events on social anxiety and its mechanisms,this study built a moderated mediation model based on Beck’s cognitive theory and individual-environment interaction model,focusing on the mediating role of self-esteem and the mediating role of self-esteem.emotional regulation of self-efficacy.A survey of 1,652 middle school students in first through third grade showed that:(1)negative life events were significantly negatively correlated with core self-esteem and significantly positively correlated with social anxiety;There was a significant negative correlation between baseline and self-esteem.(2)Negative life events can not only directly and positively predict social anxiety,but also have an impact on social anxiety through core self-evaluation;(3)The first half of the mediating effect of "negative life events → core self-evaluation → social anxiety" is regulated by emotional regulation self-efficacy.Compared to individuals with higher emotional regulation self-efficacy,the impact of negative life events on core self-evaluation is stronger in individuals with lower emotional regulation self-efficacy.The research results show that negative life events can enhance the level of social anxiety by reducing individuals’ core self-evaluation,but emotional regulation self-efficacy can weaken the negative impact of negative life events on core self-evaluation,thereby affecting social anxiety.