The Mediating Effects of Social Interaction Anxiety in Childhood Trauma Experience and Interpersonal Problem

Objectives This study was to check whether social interaction anxiety could buffer the effect of adult childhood trauma experience on interpersonal problems. Methods 241 domestic adult men and women between the ages of 19 and 59 were surveyed and analyzed through an Internet questionnaire. The research tools were the Korean version of childhood trauma questionnaire, interpersonal problem scale, and social interaction anxiety scale. For the data, correlation analysis and regression analysis were sequentially performed using the SPSS 20.0 program, and the mediating effect was analyzed. Results First, it was found that there was a positive correlation between childhood trauma, interpersonal problems, and social interaction anxiety. In other words, as childhood trauma increases, interpersonal problems and social interaction anxiety increase, and as interpersonal problems increase, childhood trauma and social interaction anxiety increase. Second, it was found that social interaction anxiety statically partially mediated between childhood trauma experience and interpersonal problems. Conclusions These results imply that it is effective to reduce social interaction anxiety in order to prevent interpersonal problems in adults who have experienced childhood trauma. In addition, it suggests that raising the level of social interaction is effective in lowering high interpersonal problems.