The relationship of rejection sensitivity, rumination and self-compassion with social anxiety in university students

Social anxiety is a condition that reduces quality of life and functionality and can cause some difficulties in university life, where communication and social relationships are important. Although self-compassion is a structure that has been shown to be protective against many psychological problems, social anxiety should be addressed at the molecular level to explore the links between self-compassion and social anxiety, as well as the links between social anxiety and rejection sensitivity and rumination. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between rejection sensitivity, rumination and self-compassion and social anxiety in university students. A total of 349 university students in Turkey, who were reached through snowball sampling, participated in the study and the analysis was continued with 307 participants after data eligibility procedures. Personal Information Form, Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Sensitivity to Rejection Scale, Ruminative Thoughts Scale and Self Understanding Scale were administered to the participants via Google survey form. The data were analysed using the SPSS 25 package. The normality of the data was analysed and it was decided that the distribution was normal. Therefore, the analyses were carried out using parametric tests. The independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance, multiple linear regression analysis, Pearson correlation analysis and mediation analysis were used. According to the results of the study, a statistically significant negative relationship was found between rejection sensitivity, rumination and social anxiety and self-compassion. Rejection sensitivity and rumination mediate the relationship between self-compassion and social anxiety. Keywords: social anxiety, rumination, rejection sensitivity, self-compassion.