Perceived Discrimination and Social Anxiety among College Students: The Chain Mediating Effects of Self-Esteem and Psychological Resilience

College students face rapid internal and external changes while managing multiple challenges, including academic pressures, interpersonal relationships, self-identity development, and future planning.These stressors make them particularly susceptible to negative emotional states, such as social anxiety, shame, depression, and emotional suppression.The intense tension, fear, and avoidance behaviors that individuals exhibit toward social situations are referred to as social anxiety (Guo, 2000).According to Li Bo et al. (2003), when individuals are aware of the need to receive evaluation and attention from others but worry about the appropriateness of their behavior, they will experience significant anxiety.The level of social anxiety among our residents has been increasing in recent years, and young people are more susceptible to social anxiety (Jefferies & Ungar, 2020).The phenomenon of social anxiety among college students is on the rise year by year, and it has become one of the major problems affecting the mental health of college students (Luo Liufen, 2019).Severe social anxiety even leads to more serious mental health problems such as depression, self-injury, and even suicide (Hou Juan et al., 2021).Therefore, investigating social anxiety and its underlying mechanisms among college students holds significant importance.Previous research on social anxiety has predominantly focused on social minority groups, such as individuals with autism spectrum disorder, physical disabilities, migrant children, and ethnic minorities (Chen & Xiong, 2023;Peng et al., 2020;Ma & An, 2019).Other studies have identified relative deprivation, rumination, and fear of negative evaluation as contributing factors to social anxiety in college students.While existing evidence suggests that perceived discrimination, self-esteem, and psychological resilience may influence social anxiety, the chain mediation mechanism involving these factors remains unexplored.Thus, this study specifically examines the roles of