Against the backdrop of the growing prevalence of social anxiety among college students, it is of great significance to explore the internal and external protective resources of college students to prevent and buffer social anxiety. Resilience, as an important protective psychological trait, is closely associated with social anxiety. However, how resilience functions through internal and external resources of psychological flexibility and perceived parental emotional support remains to be systematically explored. Based on the stress and coping theory and related research, this study constructed a moderated mediation model. It aimed to examine the relationship between resilience and social anxiety among college students, as well as the mediating role of psychological flexibility and the moderating role of perceived parental emotional support. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1713 college students using a questionnaire survey method. The results showed that resilience negatively and significantly predicted college students’ social anxiety, with psychological flexibility playing a mediating role. Perceived parental emotional support moderated the relationship between resilience and psychological flexibility, as well as the relationship between resilience and social anxiety. Specifically, perceived parental emotional support strengthened the positive predictive effect of resilience on psychological flexibility, while also enhancing the direct negative predictive effect of resilience on social anxiety. This study reveals the internal mechanism through which resilience is associated with college students’ social anxiety, providing empirical evidence and practical implications for mental health education and intervention.
Cui et al. (Wed,) studied this question.