Brain-Behavioral Systems and Loneliness: The Mediating Role of Social Anxiety

The present study aimed to examine the mediating role of Social Anxiety (SA) in the relationship between brain-behavioral systems and loneliness with correlation design. 479 students of Islamic Azad University in Tehran (293 females, 186 males) were selected by multistage sampling and completed the Iranian Loneliness Questionnaire (Rahimzadeh, 2011), Behavioral Inhibition/Behavioral Activation System Scales (Carver & White, 1994), and Social Phobia Inventory (Connor et al., 2000). The results of the path analysis test showed the direct effect of Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and Fight-Flight-Freeze System (FFFS) as positive and direct effects of Behavioral Activation System (BAS) as negative on SA, the direct effect of SA and the FFFS as positive, and direct effect of BAS is negatively significant on loneliness, but the direct effect of the BIS on loneliness is not significant. Also, the indirect effect of the BIS and the FFFS was positively significant and the indirect effect of the BAS was negatively significant on loneliness with mediating SA. In addition, the results revealed that SA plays a mediating role in the relationship between brain-behavioral systems and loneliness, and 21% of the variance of SA is explained by brain-behavioral systems, and 27% of the variance of loneliness is explained by brain-behavioral systems and SA. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that by reducing SA in people who are more sensitive to the BIS, the experience of loneliness is reduced.