This study examined the moderated mediating effect of self-compassion through the degree of fear of negative and positive evaluation on the relationships between self-oriented and socially-prescribed perfectionism and social anxiety symptoms. About 25...
This study examined the moderated mediating effect of self-compassion through the degree of fear of negative and positive evaluation on the relationships between self-oriented and socially-prescribed perfectionism and social anxiety symptoms. About 256 university students (82 men and 184 women) completed the following questionnaires: Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS), Social Phobia Scale (SPS), Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (HMPS), Brief-Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (BFNE), Korean Version of The Fear of Positive Evaluation Scale (K-FPES), and Korean version of Self-Compassion Scale (K-SCS).
The main results were as follows. First, socially-prescribed perfectionism showed a significant positive correlation with social anxiety, but there was no significant correlation between self-oriented perfectionism and social anxiety. Socially-prescribed perfectionism displayed significant positive correlations with both of fear of negative and positive evaluation, but self-oriented perfectionism showed a positive correlation with fear of negative evaluation and a negative correlation with fear of positive evaluation. It was also found that fear of negative and positive evaluation and social anxiety had a significant positive correlation. Social anxiety, self-oriented and socially-prescribed perfectionism, fear of negative and positive evaluations, and self-compassion were all found to have negative correlations.
Second, it was found that fear of negative and positive evaluation partially mediated the relationship between socially-prescribed perfectionism and social anxiety. And it was found that fear of negative and positive evaluation partially mediated the relationship between self-oriented perfectionism and social anxiety evaluation.
Third, the moderation effects of self-compassion on the relationship between fear of negative and positive evaluation and social anxiety were statistically significant based on hierchical regression and slope analysis.
Finally, self-compassion also moderated the mediating effect of self-oriented and socially-prescribed perfectionism on social anxiety via fear of negative and positive evaluation.
These results suggested the need for individual cognitive and emotional intervention depending on the subtype of perfectionism in future interventions of social anxiety and the consideration of self-compassion as effective intervention and treatment factor for perfectionism and social anxiety.