Sequential multiple mediation of cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance in the relationship between rumination and social anxiety among Chinese adolescents

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives

The potential mechanism by which rumination influences social anxiety through cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance proposed by the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy model has not been well-documented. This study, therefore, aimed to examine the sequential multiple mediation of the two processes.

Design

A cross-sectional survey was conducted.

Method

A total of 233 Chinese adolescents (42.06% girls) completed a set of printed self-report questionnaires measuring rumination, cognitive fusion, experiential avoidance, and social anxiety. The SPSS macro PROCESS (model 6) was used to test a sequential mediating model. A 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated with 5000 bootstrapping re-samples.

Results

Bootstrap analyses indicated that there were indirect effects of rumination on social anxiety mediated by cognitive fusion together with experiential avoidance (B = 0.098, BootSE = 0.032, CI = 0.045 to 0.170), or solely by experiential avoidance (B = 0.048, BootSE = 0.020, CI = 0.014 to 0.093). The mediation of cognitive fusion alone was not significant (B = 0.065, BootSE = 0.038, CI = –0.006 to 0.144).

Conclusions

The results indicated the sequential mediating role of cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance, and the relative prominence of the latter in the association between rumination and social anxiety.

KEYWORDS:

• Social anxiety
• experiential avoidance
• cognitive fusion
• rumination
• mediation

Data availability statement

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Ethics statement

The protocol of the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Psychology, Central China Normal University.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. 2020YBZZ091); the Basic Research Project of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission (Grant No.19JC1410101); the Research Funds for Shanghai Health Commission for Academic Leader Training (Grant No. GWV-10.2-XD30); the Research Funds for Changning District Health Committee of Medical Specialty (Grant No.20192002); the Project of Humanities and Social Sciences [grant number 20YJC190025].