The role of body image and cognitive avoidance on social anxiety in university students

Social anxiety indicates the tendency to be anxious in social situations and also expresses the fear of rejection from others and due to the significant impact on the performance of individuals, it can be considered as one of the serious problems. The purpose of this study was to relation of components of body image and cognitive avoidance with social anxiety in adults. This study, done based on Correlation method. 383 students of Shiraz University were selected by available sampling method and all of them completed Social Anxiety Scale (Connor, et al., 2000), Body Image Concern Scale (Littleton et al., 2005) and Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire (Sexton and Douglas, 2008). The obtained data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis was used to analyze the hypotheses. The results of regression analysis showed that two variables of body image concern and cognitive avoidance can significantly predict social anxiety (P <0.005). Body image and cognitive avoidance, predict 0.27 and 0.23 of social anxiety variance, respectively. With increasing the satisfaction of the body image using culture and necessary trainings, could be improved the mental health of individuals and is prevented psychiatric disorders such as social anxiety.