Research Paper: Mediating Effects of Cognitive Factors on Relation Between Behavioral Inhibition and Social Anxiety مقالة

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the interactional relationship between behavioral inhibition and cognitive factors which lead to social anxiety. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study involving 408 participants who were recruited using convenient sampling method. All participants completed four questionnaires namely Social Phobia Inventory, Behavioral Inhibition Scales, Focus Attention Questionnaire, and Consequences of Negative Social Events Questionnaire. Data were analyzed by path analysis using LISREL software. Results: There was a significant correlation of cognitive factors with each other (P<0.05). Behavioral inhibition and cognitive factors had a significant effect on upgrading social anxiety. This confirms the casual model that social anxiety is caused by behavioral inhibition along with mediation by cognitive factors. Conclusion: This study may serve as a tool for screening and predicting the occurrence of social anxiety in students. According to the mediating effect of cognitive factors on behavioral inhibition in rising social anxiety, this knowledge can be used for prevention and treatment of social anxiety.

"The present research studies the relationship between behavioral inhibition and cognitive factors in enhancing social anxiety symptoms, behavioral inhibition (in adult- hood and childhood), attention bias (focusing on self and the outside), and processing bias (negative self-evalua- tion and the perception of other people’s negative evalu- ation). Since the two cognitive variables of other-focused attention and the perception of other people’s negative appraisal carried less weightage in predicting social anxiety symptoms, they were deleted from the model, and further analysis was done by path analysis method (Figure 1). Therefore, by generalizing the results of this study in the general population, it can be said that the temperamental behavioral inhibition factor causes social anxiety disorder, via the cognitive factors of self-focused attention and negative self-appraisal. According to the relation between natural and cogni- tive factors, we can successfully deduce that the natural factor of behavioral inhibition, accompanied with the cognitive factors of self-focused attention and negative self-appraisal, create the social anxiety disorder. Hence, by generalizing the results of this study to the population, it can be understood that the nat- ural factor of behavioral inhibition, with mediation of the cognitive factors of self-focused attention and negative self-appraisal, cause the social anxiety symptoms. Also according to the linear pattern of the relations in the Kimbrel model, cognitive factors (in this study, self-focused attention and nega- tive self-appraisal) are the medium for the effect of the natural factor of behavioral inhibition in causing social anxiety disorder symptoms."