Relationship Between Parental Marital Conflict and Social Anxiety Symptoms of Chinese College Students: Mediation Effect of Attachment

The Relationship Between Interparental Conflict and Social Anxiety Among Chinese College Students: A Moderated Mediation Model

Purpose

Our aim is to construct a moderated mediation model for investigating the effect of interparental conflict on social anxiety, the potential mediating role of psychological resilience, the moderating effect of perceived social support on this association, and the gender difference among Chinese college students.

Methods

This cross-sectional survey was conducted on 1343 Chinese college students from Anhui Province, Hunan Province, Jiangsu Province, and Henan Province, China, in March 2024. Pearson correlation, mediation effects analyses, and multiple-group comparison were conducted.

Results

(1) Interparental conflict and social anxiety varied significantly with gender, while the interparental conflict (t = -3.998, p < 0.001) and social anxiety (t = -4.644, p < 0.001) in the female group were significantly more severe than in the male group. However, there was no significant difference in interparental conflict and social anxiety between different grades (p > 0.05); (2) Interparental conflict positively predicts social anxiety; (3) The relationship between interparental conflict and social anxiety is mediated by psychological resilience; (4) The relationship between interparental conflict and psychological resilience is moderated by perceived social support; (5) The mediating effect was found only in women, but the moderating effect was no gender difference.

Conclusion

It is crucial to recognize and cultivate the psychological resilience of college students and to provide them with appropriate high social support. This is conducive to alleviating the social anxiety suffered by college students and promote their psycho-social well-being.

The role of hope in college transition: Its cross-lagged relationships with psychosocial resources and emotional well-being in first-year college students

INTRODUCTION

College transition is often regarded as the most stressful phase of life by college students. Hence, it is necessary to find ways to help them adjust more smoothly to this transition. Hope, as conceptualized by C. R. Snyder, has been widely studied as a predictor of optimal functioning and has been shown to be associated with better adjustment among college students. This study aimed to shed light on the role of hope in college transition by examining its unique reciprocal relationships with an array of important psychosocial resources and emotional well-being among first-year college students.

METHODS

Data were collected from a sample of Hong Kong college freshmen (N = 433, Medianage = 18 years old, 63.7% female) at two time points. At each time point, participants completed self-reported measures tapping into their levels of hope, psychosocial resources, and emotional well-being. Psychological resources included general and academic self-efficacy, meaning in life, and optimism. Social resources included secure attachment, perceived school environment, and social support. Emotional well-being was operationalized as positive and negative emotions. Cross-lagged panel models were constructed and tested by path analyses.

RESULTS

When autoregression and the effects of other variables were controlled, a greater sense of hope uniquely predicted higher levels of general and academic self-efficacy, greater presence of life meanings, more secure attachment, and more positive and fewer negative emotions. On the other hand, higher levels of meaning in life (both presence and search) and social support uniquely predicted greater hope. Academic hope and presence of life meanings reciprocally predicted one another, whereas other significant cross-lagged relationships were unidirectional.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest interventions that promote hope can be useful in helping college freshmen adjust to the new college environment by enhancing their psychosocial resources and emotional well-being. Such interventions would be more effective if they included elements that boost meaning in life and social support, which are expected to further enhance the perceptions of hope.

The moderating effect of marital conflict on the relationship between social avoidance and socio-emotional functioning among young children in suburban China

Social avoidance has been found to be related to negative social adjustment, yet evidence of the relationship between social avoidance and social adjustment is very limited in suburban preschoolers in China. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms that help to explain the associations between social avoidance and socio-emotional adjustment remain poorly considered. The goal of the present study was to examine the moderating effect of marital conflict in the link between social avoidance and indices of socio-emotional functioning among young children in mainland China. Participants were N = 256 children aged from 49 to 72 months (125 boys, 131 girls, M_age  = 59.06 months, SD = 6.58) attending preschools/kindergartens in suburban areas of Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Multi-source assessments were employed, with mothers reporting marital conflict as well as rating their children's social withdrawal (i.e., social avoidance, shyness, unsociability), and teachers assessing indices of children's socio-emotional functioning at school (i.e., anxious-fearful behavior, peer exclusion, and loneliness). Children were asked about their loneliness. Among the results, social avoidance was positively associated with anxious-fearful behavior, peer exclusion, and loneliness (marginal significance). Moreover, as hypothesized, marital conflict was found to exacerbate the relations between social avoidance and peer exclusion, and loneliness. Results are discussed in terms of the etiology and implications of social avoidance among young children in mainland China.

Destructive interparental conflict affects Chinese children's emotional and behavioral problems: Indirect pathways via parent-child attachment and emotional insecurity

BACKGROUND

Previous studies have demonstrated that destructive interparental conflict (IPC) is closely related to the emergence of emotional and behavioral problems in adolescents. In addition, in the family system, such conflict also affects the patent-child attachment relationship and emotional insecurity of adolescents.

OBJECTIVES

This study mainly explores the relationship between destructive interparental conflict and adolescents' emotional and behavioral problems, focuses on the role of parent-child attachment and emotional insecurity, and analyzes whether this relationality plays multiple mediating roles in the influence of destructive interparental conflict on emotional and behavioral problems.

METHODS

Data for the study were obtained through a questionnaire survey conducted on 524 Chinese adolescents from primary and junior high school.

RESULTS

Structural equation modeling was conducted to test direct and indirect pathways between destructive interparental conflict and Chinese adolescents' emotional and behavioral problems. Destructive IPC negatively predicted parent-child attachment and parent-child attachment negatively predicted emotional and behavioral problems. Destructive Interparental conflict positively predicted emotional insecurity and emotional insecurity positively predicted emotional and behavioral problems.

DISCUSSION

The results show that: (1) Parent-child attachment negatively predicted emotional and behavioral problems, and emotional insecurity positively predicted the same. (2) Parent-child attachment and emotional insecurity act in a multiple mediating role between destructive IPC and adolescents' emotional and behavioral problems. (3) Parent-child attachment and emotional insecurity constitute two indirect pathways between destructive IPC and adolescents' emotional and behavioral problems, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Destructive IPC can adversely affect emotional and behavioral problems among adolescents; destructive IPC plays a damaging role in their emotional security and parent-child attachment, consequently effecting emotional and behavioral problems.

Perceived stress and mobile phone addiction among college students: The roles of self-control and security

OBJECTIVE

According to the General Strain Theory, stress can lead to a range of problem behaviors. In the current study, we focused on the association between perceived stress and mobile phone addiction. We hypothesized that this association is mediated by low self-control and that the first path of the mediation is moderated by security.

METHODS

College students (N = 397; ages 16-21; 51.89% females) from a university in Hunan Province, China, were surveyed by cluster sampling method. The students completed the Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV), the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), the Self-Control Scale (SCS), and the Security Questionnaire (SQ) during regular class time. SPSS26.0 statistical software was used for descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analyses, the SPSS macro PROCESS was used to test the mediating effects of self-control and the moderating role of security.

RESULTS

Mediation analysis showed that as expected, perceived stress was associated with lower self-control, which in turn was associated with a higher risk for mobile phone addiction. Also as expected, moderated mediation analysis indicated that the association between perceived stress and self-control was moderated by security. Specifically, the relationship between perceived stress and self-control was stronger for low security.

CONCLUSION

This study provides useful insight into the understanding of how perceived stress increases the risk of mobile phone addiction. The results are consistent with the General Strain Theory and further indicate that concrete approaches are required for the prevention and intervention to reduce mobile phone addiction among college students.