Mediating effect of body dysmorphic concerns between child abuse and social anxiety among adolescents

Social anxiety is a highly prevalent psychiatric disorder that has long lasting effects on affected individuals. Adverse child events have been linked to social anxiety. This study aimed to measure the mediating effect of body dysmorphic concerns in the association between different types of child abuse and social anxiety. Using the snowball sampling technique, participants (n = 336) were Lebanese adolescents who completed the Child Abuse Self Report Scale, the Social Phobia Inventory, and the Dysmorphic Concern Questionnaire. The PROCESS SPSS Macro version 3.4, model four was used to conduct the mediation analysis. After adjusting over confounders (age, gender, household crowding index and the other three forms of child abuse), results of mediation analysis showed that body dysmorphic concerns partially mediated the association between one type of child abuse, i.e. psychological abuse, and social anxiety. Higher psychological abuse was significantly associated with more body dysmorphic concerns and directly associated with higher social anxiety. Finally, higher body dysmorphic concerns were significantly associated with more social anxiety. This study shed the light on how the relationship between certain forms of child abuse and social anxiety can be explained by assessing an individual’s body dysmorphic concern. These results may have potential clinical implications in treating social anxiety in the Arab world.