Relationship Between Parental Marital Conflict and Social Anxiety Symptoms of Chinese College Students: Mediation Effect of Attachment

Social anxiety has been a common problem among college students and has an adverse impact on their adaptation outcomes. Among influential factors, parental marital conflict and attachment (parental and peer attachment) have been found to be related to social anxiety symptoms of college students; however, little is known how parental marital conflict and attachment jointly contribute to social anxiety symptoms of college students. The current study explored this issue. Self-reported questionnaires of perception of children of interparental conflict scale, inventory of parent and peer attachment, and the social interaction anxiety scale were administered to 707 undergraduate students (Mean age = 19.27, SD = 0.97). Results indicated that perceived parental marital conflict was positively correlated with social anxiety symptoms and was negatively associated with parental and peer attachment. Parental and peer attachments were negatively correlated with social anxiety symptoms. Mediation analyses indicated that perceived parental marital conflict exerted its indirect effect on social anxiety symptoms through a serial multiple mediation role of parental and peer attachment. The present findings highlight the serial multiple mediation role of parental and peer attachment in the relationship between perceived parental marital conflict and social anxiety symptoms of college students.