Background
Social anxiety, widely prevalent amongst Chinese college students, poses a significant barrier to their holistic psychological and physiological development. Despite numerous cross-sectional studies examining the relationship between rumination and social anxiety, a gap remains in understanding their interplay over time. This longitudinal study aimed to explore and analyze the intricate interrelation between these two factors, with the ultimate goal of informing the development of effective mental health education interventions for university students.
Methods
Using the Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS) and the Interaction Anxiousness Scale (IAS), a two-stage longitudinal follow-up study of 392 college students from three universities in Henan Province was conducted over a six-month period (October 2022 to March 2023), using a cross-lagged model (The cross-lagged model was used to explore the correlation between rumination and social anxiety. The results of the correlation analysis showed that rumination was positively associated with social anxiety at both time points (r = 0.18,0.12, p < 0.01).
Results
Cross-lagged regression analyses revealed that the predictive effect of the first measure (T1) rumination on the second measure (T2) rumination was statistically significant (β = 0.32, p < 0.01). the predictive effect of T1 social anxiety on T2 social anxiety was statistically significant (β = 0.65, p < 0.01), the predictive effect of T1 rumination on T2 social anxiety was statistically significance (β = 0.33, p < 0.01) and the prediction of T1 social anxiety on T2 rumination was statistically significant (β = 0.28, p < 0.01).
Conclusion
Rumination and social anxiety in college students are mutually predictive of each other, and interventions by educators in either area of ruminant thinking and social anxiety will interrupt the vicious cycle between ruminant thinking and social anxiety.
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