Numerous studies have been used to investigate the experience of apprehension and anxiety in social situations, including social anxiety, embarrassment, social phobia, communication apprehension and shyness (Amico et al., 2004, Crozier, 2000 and Norton et al., 1997). Since these negative experiences are common and likely to be universal (Cheek & Melchior, 1990), persistent and pervasive feelings of them may be linked to social and psychological problems, such as depression and loneliness (Schmidt and Fox, 1995, Tommaso and Spinner, 1997 and Zhao et al., 2012). Given the negative psychosocial consequences, it is of theoretical and practical importance to understand the underlying mechanisms between these variables. This study aimed to explore the mechanisms underlying the relationship between shyness and loneliness.
1.1. Shyness and loneliness
Shyness refers to an inhibition of expected social behavior, together with feelings of embarrassment and discomfort in social situations, especially those that involve strangers or unfamiliar people (Buss, 1985). Numerous studies have indicated a robust correlation between shyness and loneliness (e.g., Ashe and McCutcheon, 2001, Fitts et al., 2009, Gökhan, 2010 and Zhao et al., 2012). Ashe and McCutcheon (2001) pointed out that shy people demonstrated resistance in their emotion and attitude towards social interactions, which makes them reluctant to participate in social activities, thus leading to a strong sense of loneliness. According to Zhao et al. (2012), shy people tend to use few improvement strategies, such as adaptive humor, and more use of maladaptive humor, which is an important reason resulting in their loneliness.
1.2. Shyness, social support, self-esteem and loneliness
Although measures of shyness and loneliness typically show a correlation ranging from .40 to .50, shyness and loneliness are reliably correlated (Ashe and McCutcheon, 2001, Fitts et al., 2009 and Jones et al., 1990), the degree to which intervening variables mediate their relationship is not clear.
A review of the literature has identified one promising mediator between shyness and loneliness: Social support. A series of studies have emphasized the importance of adequate social support in preventing and reducing loneliness (e.g., Kong and You, in press and Perlman and Peplau, 1981), their results indicated that participants with higher levels of social support felt lower levels of loneliness. Research by Jackson, Fritch, Nagasaka, and Gunderson (2002) provided evidence supporting the mediating role of social support in the shyness–loneliness relationship. They pointed out that low levels of interpersonal competence in shy people predicted reductions in social support, and reductions in social support predicted increases in loneliness.
Self-esteem has also been found to play a significant mediating role between shyness and loneliness (Zhao et al., 2012). Zhao et al. (2012) reported that shy individuals generally made a negative self-evaluation and lack of confidence in their social behaviors, which made them stay clear from social situations, thus enhancing their loneliness.
1.3. The current study
Although previous researches on mediating effects of social support and self-esteem has provided insight into underlying mechanisms to elucidate the relationship between shyness and loneliness, some further areas of investigation can be explored. First, testing the concurrent mediating effects of social support and self-esteem using the structural equation modeling, which has been examined separately, would extend our consolidated understanding of the mechanism how shyness and loneliness are connected. Previous research has found that a multi-mediator model may be more meaningful than a single-mediator model, because it may provide our relative importance of these mediators. For instance, Park, Heppner, and Lee (2010) found that only maladaptive coping might directly mediate between perfectionism and psychological distress, although the mediating effects of maladaptive coping and self-esteem have been examined separately in the previous literature. Second, we would use the multi-group analysis to identify whether there are significant gender differences in the mediational model. In addition, a noteworthy deficiency in the shyness literature is that most of the studies were executed within Western countries. Testing the mediation models in an Asian culture, would provide meaningful evidence for the external validity. Taken together, the present study tested the mediation effects of both social support and self-esteem between shyness and loneliness in Chinese college students.
