Interpersonal satisfaction and classroom silence in Chinese universities: the mediating role of social anxiety

Findings reveal a socio-emotional cascade: supportive relationships link to anxiety, which subsequently decreases the propensity for silence. The residual direct path indicates the presence of additional explanatory mechanisms. By delineating how relational climates associate with voice behavior, this study challenges essentialist attributions of Chinese students' silence exclusively to Confucian deference norms. Due to cross-sectional design, causal inferences are tentative.