The Mediating Effect of Maladaptive Self-Focused Attention on the Relationship Between Middle School Students’ Perception of Mothers’ Perfectionism and Social Anxiety

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the mediating of maladaptive self-focused attention of middle school students in the relationship between their mothers’ perfectionism and their social anxiety. Methods: Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to confirm the relationships among the research variables. PROCESS macro Model 4 presented by Hayes was used to investigate the mediating model with bootstrapping applied to examine the significance of the mediating effect. Results: First, mothers’ perfectionism perceived by middle school students did not have a direct effect on social anxiety. Second, maladaptive self-focused attention mediated the relationship between middle school students’ perception of their mothers’ perfectionism and their social anxiety. Conclusions: In conclusion, the higher a middle school student’s perception of their mother’s perfectionism, the higher the maladaptive self-focus and, therefore, the higher the frequency of social anxiety.