relationship between experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion to social interaction anxiety in students

background: the current study aimed at assessing the relationship between experiential avoidance (ea) and cognitive fusion to the level of anxiety in students experiencing such problems in their social interactions. methods: the sample consisted of 324 college students who were randomly selected by cluster sampling method. they completed acceptance and action questionnaire (aaq-ii), social anxiety-acceptance and action questionnaire (sa-aaq), cognitive fusion ques- tionnaire (cfq), believability of anxious feelings and thoughts questionnaire (baft), and social interaction anxiety scale (sias). pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. results: the results showed a positive correlation between ea (r = 0.45; p 0.001) and social anxiety-acceptance and action (r = - 0.50; p 0.001) and anxiety in social interactions. a significant positive correlation was also found between cfq (r = 0.48; p 0.001) and baft (r = 0.26; p 0.001) and social interaction anxiety. overall ea (β = 0.45) and acceptance (β = -0.37) and action (β = -0.12) components of sa-aaq scores were predictor for overall anxiety score in social interactions (p 0.001) in addition, overall cognitive fusion score (β = 0.48; p 0.001), and somatic concerns (β = 0.16; p 0.01), negative evaluation (β = 0.32; p 0.003) and emotion regulation (β = -0.21; p 0.001) components of baft could predict anxiety in social interactions. conclusions: the results of the current study showed a correlation between ea and cognitive fusion and students anxiety in social interactions.