Influence of family function on social anxiety among Chinese nursing students: The mediating role of alexithymia

AIMS: This study aims to explore the relationship between family function, alexithymia and social anxiety among Chinese nursing students, especially to determine whether alexithymia acts as a mediator between family function and social anxiety among this social group. DESIGN: A cross‐sectional study. METHODS: From January to March 2021, a cross‐sectional study was conducted among 204 Chinese nursing students at a nursing school of a medical university in the Northeastern Region of China. The interaction anxiousness scale, APGAR family function scale and Tronto alexithymia scale were used for measurement of social anxiety, perceived family function and alexithymia respectively. The data were subjected to correlation analysis, multiple linear regression and structural equation modelling (SEM). RESULTS: Results indicated that social anxiety score was negatively correlated with perceived family function (r = −.232), but positively with alexithymia (r = .307). After controlling for demographic variables, family function and alexithymia could explain 14.5% of the total variance in social anxiety. The SEM results suggested that the effect of family function on social anxiety was partially mediated by alexithymia with a 36.9% mediating effect. CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals that alexithymia might partially mediate the impact of family function and social anxiety in Chinese nursing students. In this sense, improvement of alexithymia is expected to be an effective strategy to ameliorate the severity social anxiety in Chinese nursing students, especially for those with a dysfunctional family context.