The Effect of Socially Prescribed Perfectionism on Social Anxiety: Focusing on the Mediation Effects of Intolerence of Uncertainty and Self-Coldness

Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of intolerance of uncertainty and self-coldness in the relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and social anxiety. Methods Participants from the 4-year-colleges in Seoul (N=422) completed an online survey that measured levels of socially prescribed perfectionism, intolerance of uncertainty, self-coldness, and social anxiety. Statistics analysis, correlations, and bootstrapping analysis were conducted by means of SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 8.0 programs to examine the multiple mediating effects. Results First, there are positive correlations among socially prescribed perfectionism, social anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty and self-coldness. Second, intolerance of uncertainty and self-coldness mediated the relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and social anxiety. Third, in the pathway in which socially prescribed perfectionism affects social anxiety, the sequential dual mediation pathway of intolerance of uncertainty and self-coldness was confirmed. Conclusions This results provide evidence to suggest that socially prescribed perfectionism has an impact on social anxiety through its association with intolerance of uncertainty and self-coldness. Based on these results, the implications and limitations of this study were discussed.