Social Anxiety among Chinese People

Abstract

The experience of social anxiety has largely been investigated among Western populations; much less is known about social anxiety in other cultures. Unlike the Western culture, the Chinese emphasize interdependence and harmony with social others. In addition, it is unclear if Western constructed instruments adequately capture culturally conditioned conceptualizations and manifestations of social anxiety that might be specific to the Chinese. The present study employed a sequence of qualitative and quantitative approaches to examine the assessment of social anxiety among the Chinese people. Interviews and focus group discussions with Chinese participants revealed that some items containing the experience of social anxiety among the Chinese are not present in existing Western measures. Factor analysis was employed to examine the factor structure of the more comprehensive scale. This approach revealed an “other concerned anxiety” factor that appears to be specific to the Chinese. Subsequent analysis found that the new factor—other concerned anxiety—functioned the same as other social anxiety factors in their association with risk factors of social anxiety, such as attachment, parenting, behavioral inhibition/activation, and attitude toward group. The implications of these findings for a more culturally sensitive assessment tool of social anxiety among the Chinese were discussed.

The mediating role of mental vulnerability between negative life events and interaction anxiousness

“…After the mental vulnerability variables were included in Model III, only Psychosomatic symptoms and Interpersonal problems among them were signi cant predictors of interaction anxiousness. This is partially consistent with Xie and Fan et al [24][25] , who demonstrated that College students are troubled by interaction anxiousness in their interpersonal relationship, interpersonal problems is still one of the important causes of psychological problems among college students, which more likely to happen when people are afraid of being excluded or isolated.…”

Social anxiety, self‐esteem and quality of life among hypertensive patients during COVID‐19 local epidemic in China: A mediation analysis

“…They worried that their behaviour would affect others adversely. This "other concerned anxiety" plays a vital role in social anxiety in Chinese people (Fan & Chang, 2015). Therefore, it is necessary to understand better the relationship between QoL and lower levels of social anxiety to improve QoL, especially in China.…”

Attachment-related anxiety and social anxiety: the mediating role of self-esteem

“…The SIAS is commonly used in social anxiety research as a measure of the fear of interaction in generic social situations, and the items reflect anxiety in a variety of different social interactional contexts. (55,56) The SIAS has high test-retest reliability and internal consistency, as well as good convergent validity. (54) The SIAS is a 20-item Likert scale which requires participants to endorse statements about their cognitive, emotional, and behavioural responses to different social scenarios, such as meeting new people.…”