The Relationship between Perfectionism and Social Anxiety Symptoms with Self- Compassion Mediation among Students Studying at Shahed University

Predicting social anxiety is accomplished by a variety of psychological variables, including perfectionism. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between perfectionism and social anxiety by considering the mediating role of self-compassion.

The research method was correlational. The target population was three undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students at Shahed University in Tehran, of whom 2,266 were selected. The instruments used in this study included the Leibovitz Social Anxiety Questionnaire (1987), the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (1990), and the Self-Compassion Scale (Nef, 2003), and the data collected were analyzed using SPSS23 and AMOS18 software.

The findings show that there is a significant relationship between perfectionism and signs of social anxiety; In such a way that according to the hypothetical structural model, perfectionism with a standard coefficient of 0.67 predicted social anxiety. The results of mediating effects also showed that the effect of perfectionism with self-mediated mediation has a standard coefficient of -0.16, which was significant at the level of 0.02.

The findings of the present study revealed the relationship between perfectionism and social anxiety and the role of self-compassion as the mediator between perfectionism and social anxiety. In this way, we can pay attention to the mentioned variables in the scope of interpersonal and interpersonal relationships, educational and family issues, as well as treatment.