MODEL OF SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER: A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING OF COGNITIVE, META-COGNITIVE, BEHAVIORAL ASPECTS

Social anxiety is one of the most common anxiety disorders which negatively affect all aspects of people's lives. The research method of this study was descriptive correlational of the structural equation model. Statistical population included all the clients of public and private counseling centers in the city of Kermanshah (Iran). At first, 300 eligible people were selected. The selected constructs included self efficacy, fear of negative evaluation, assumptions (cognitive), ability of cognition, negative meta-beliefs, mind control (meta-cognitive), behavioral avoidance and safety behavior (behavior). AMOS-23 software was used to analyze the data. The results showed that cognitive, meta-cognitive and behavioral factors have a direct impact on social anxiety. Also, social anxiety disorder is impacted by cognition dimensions through mediators of meta-cognitive and behavioral factors. Nevertheless, meta-cognition did not have a meaningful effect on social anxiety through behavior. The results of structural equation model showed that the cognitive, meta-cognitive, behavioral model that coordinate with the present research can predict social anxiety disorder. Structural analysis results showed that the designed model gave an adequate fit to the sample data of the present study. The developed model can improve researches associated with social anxiety disorder and facilitate clinical treatment of this disorder.