Attachment, loneliness, and social anxiety: A comparison of deaf and hearing Chinese adolescents

Abstract

We investigated whether or not social anxiety mediates the relationship between attachment and loneliness with a group of Chinese adolescents with normal hearing (n = 152) and a second group who were deaf (n = 120), and, if so, if this mediation effect is moderated by life experience. In this study, Chinese adolescents completed anonymous surveys regarding attachment, social anxiety, and loneliness. The results showed that the relationship between father attachment and loneliness was not mediated by social anxiety for either deaf or hearing adolescents. In contrast, for both mother and peer attachment, the relationship was partially mediated by social anxiety for hearing adolescents only. We discuss the implications of the findings and potential interventions that can be applied to increase subjective well-being in deaf and hearing Chinese adolescents.