The Influence of Self-Supporting Personality on Social Anxiety in College Students: The Serial- Mediating Roles of Attention Bias and Social Problem-Solving OrientationAuthor information

Background Social anxiety is highly prevalent among college students and is associated with impaired academic functioning and long-term social maladjustment. Identifying culturally grounded personality resources and the psychological mechanisms through which they operate may contribute to more precise intervention strategies. Drawing on indigenous personality theory and cognitive–behavioral models, the present study examined the association between self-supporting personality and social anxiety among Chinese college students, with a particular focus on the sequential mediating roles of attention bias and social problem-solving orientation. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 660 undergraduate students from three universities in Henan Province, China. Participants completed measures of self-supporting personality, positive and negative attention bias, social problem-solving orientation, and social anxiety. Serial mediation analyses were performed using the PROCESS macro (Model 6) with bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals. Results The results indicated that self-supporting personality was significantly associated with lower levels of social anxiety. Both positive and negative attention bias, as well as positive and negative social problem-solving orientation, independently mediated this association. Moreover, two valence-specific sequential mediation pathways were supported. On the positive pathway, self-supporting personality was associated with enhanced positive attention bias, which in turn predicted a more positive social problem-solving orientation and, subsequently, lower social anxiety. On the negative pathway, self-supporting personality was associated with reduced negative attention bias, which predicted lower negative social problem-solving orientation and reduced social anxiety. Notably, negative attention bias accounted for a larger proportion of the indirect effect than negative problem-solving orientation. Conclusion These findings suggest that self-supporting personality may influence social anxiety primarily through cognitive–behavioral mechanisms, with attentional processing playing a central role. The results highlight the importance of targeting modifiable attentional and problem-solving processes when designing interventions to reduce social anxiety among college students.