Body dissatisfaction and social anxiety among adolescents: A moderated mediation model of feeling of inferiority, family cohesion and friendship quality

Abstract

Abstract Previous research has documented that body dissatisfaction is positively related to social anxiety. However, little is known about the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relation. Based on ecological systems theory, this study aimed to examine the chain mediation effect of friendship quality and family cohesion in the relationship between body dissatisfaction and social anxiety among adolescents and whether this mediating process was moderated by feeling of inferiority. A total of 972 students (mean age = 15.77 years, SD = 0.856) were enrolled in this study. All participants completed questionnaires regarding adolescent body dissatisfaction, feeling of inferiority, family cohesion, friendship quality and social anxiety. Our study found that body dissatisfaction was positively associated with social anxiety. Feeling of inferiority and family cohesion were found to play a chain-mediated role in the relation between body dissatisfaction and social anxiety. In addition, friendship quality plays a moderating role in the relationship between body dissatisfaction and feeling of inferiority. According to ecological systems theory, it suggested that family cohesion and friendship quality, as important elements in the microsystem of adolescents, interacted with each other, and interacted with the core parts of the ecosystem, such as body dissatisfaction and feeling of inferiority. These effects in turn have an impact on the individual's psychological characteristics-social anxiety. These findings show lights on how body dissatisfaction is associated with social anxiety in adolescents.