A conceptualizaton and modelling study for social anxiety

The present study aims to examine the relationship between social anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, fear of positive evaluation, self-esteem, self-perception and post-event processing within the framework of proposed structural model. First of all, in order to determine the fear of negative evaluation with a more recent measurement tool, Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale-II (BFNE-II) and Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale-Straightforward Items (BFNE-S) were adapted into Turkish and their psychometric properties were examined. According to the results of the analysis, it was determined that the Turkish versions of BFNE-II and BFNE-S have adequate psychometric properties. In the main study, proposed processes related to social anxiety were tested with structural equation modeling. According to the results of the analysis, eleven direct and nine indirect effects were found. In the model, the effect size of the variables that directly effect social anxiety comes to the fore as fear of positive evaluation, self-perception, self-esteem, and fear of negative evaluation, respectively. At the same time, it was determined that social anxiety has a significant direct effect on post-event processing. Considering the indirect effects, sequential (or serial) mediating effects of fears of evaluation in the relationship between self-perception and social anxiety were significant. Similarly, fears of evaluation in the relationship between self-esteem and social anxiety have a sequential mediating effect. On the other hand, the results demonstrated that, fear of negative evaluation appeared to have a mediating role in the relationship between fear of positive evaluation and social anxiety. Finally, all the direct and indirect effects within the scope of the model were discussed in the light of the theoretical background, and the theoretical and clinical implications of the model as well as suggestions for future research were made.