The causal model of social anxiety of university students based on brain-behavioral systems with mediating of cognitive emotion regulation strategies

Introduction: Social anxiety disorder is one of the most common anxiety disorders and it widely affects social relationships. Hence, it is very important to study its etiology. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the role of Behavioral Activation/Inhibition Systems (BAS/BIS) in social anxiety symptoms with regard to the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Materials and Methods: In this correlational-analytic study, 282 students of Quchan branch of Islamic Azad University in the academic year 2018-2019 were selected using multi-stage clustering method. The students answered the Behavioral Inhibition/Activation System (BIS/BAS) scales of Carver and White (1994), Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ; Garnefski, Kraaij and Spinhoven, 2001), and Connor Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN). Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. Results: The findings showed that there is a significant direct relationship between behavioral inhibition system with social anxiety (β=0.29, P<0.05) and cognitive emotion regulation strategies (β=0.34, P< 0.05). Moreover, the direct relationship between behavioral activation system and social anxiety is significant (β= -0.19, P<0.05). Data analysis based on structural model indicated an indirect and significant effect between behavioral inhibition system and social anxiety while the effect of behavioral activation system and social anxiety is not significant. The findings supported the appropriate fit of the hypothetical structure among the research variables. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that high BIS sensitivity and difficulty in emotion regulation leads to maladaptive efforts to regulate, emotional response, and ultimately an increasing risk of psychological disorders such as social anxiety.