This study was conducted to examine the dual mediated effect of internalized shame and ambivalence emotional expressiveness in the relationship between parental reaction to child’s negative emotions perceived by university students and social anxiety. To that end, an online survey was conducted for male and female university students from colleges in Korea, and a total of 350 answers were used as the final analysis material. The collected materials were analyzed by utilizing SPSS 25.0 and SPSS Macro. The results of this study are as follows.
First of all, internalized shame had a full mediating effect on the relationship between parental reaction to child’s negative emotions and social anxiety. The results indicated that it can be seen that university students who grew up receiving inappropriate responses from their parents to negative emotional expressions experience internalized shame and eventually lead to social anxiety.
Secondly, ambivalence emotional expressiveness had a full mediating effect on the relationship between parental of reaction to child’s negative emotions perceived and social anxiety. These results imply that it can be seen that university students who grew up receiving inappropriate responses from their parents to negative emotional expressions experience ambivalence in emotional expression, which eventually leads to social anxiety.
Lastly, internalized shame and ambivalence emotional expressiveness had a full double mediating effect on the relationship between parental reaction to child’s negative emotions and social anxiety. Such results show that when consulting university students complaining of social anxiety, it is considered necessary to confirm not only social anxiety symptoms but also an individual''s internalized shame and emotional expression ability.
Based on these results, it is anticipated that basic data on possible interventions to alleviate social anxiety in counseling or education in which university students who have experienced inappropriate reaction from their parents to child’s negative emotions in their growth stages complain problems such as social anxiety would be established.