Psychological Development and Education ›› 2021, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (4): 517-524.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2021.04.08

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Self-differentiation and College Students'Experiential Avoidance: Mediating Effect of Shyness and Its Gender Difference

DOU Fen1, LI Qiaoling2, WANG Shuhao3   

  1. 1. School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097;
    2. Institute of Psychology and Behavior, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004;
    3. Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062
  • Published:2021-07-26

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Abstract: Substantial literature has documented the important effect of self-differentiation on individuals' experiential avoidance. However,there exists scanty research on the mechanisms underlying the relationship between self-differentiation and college students' experiential avoidance. This study constructs a moderated mediation model to examine whether shyness mediated the relation between self-differentiation and experiential avoidance among college students, and whether this mediating process was moderated by gender. A total of 970 college students were selected, and completed differentiation of self inventory, shyness scale and acceptance and action questionnaire. The results indicated that:(1) Shyness and experiential avoidance were both negatively correlated with self-differentiation in college students. But shyness was positively correlated with experiential avoidance; (2) Self-differentiation could not only directly predict college students' experiential avoidance, but also indirectly predict experiential avoidance through the shyness; (3) Gender moderated the mediation effect of shyness. Specifically, the effects of self-differentiation on shyness and experiential avoidance on both male and female samples have reached the significant level, compared with female college students, the effects of self-differentiation on shyness and experiential avoidance were much stronger among male college students. While the effect of shyness on experiential avoidance was much stronger among female college students than among male college students.

Key words: self-differentiation, experiential avoidance, shyness, gender difference, college students

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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