The Effect of Cognitive and Behavioral Dimensions of Social Anxiety on the Internet Abusive Use Mediating by Gender Roles

The aim of this research was to investigate the relationship of cognitive and behavioral dimensions of social anxiety and internet abusive use by mediating gender roles.

the research method was a descriptive correlational. The Statistical population was composed of all boy students in second semester 2020-2021, living in Damghan City, of which 250 individuals participated in the study through online recall. The research tool included Social Anxiety Scale (Puklek & Videc, 2008), the Gender Roles Scale (Boldizar, 1999) and internet abusive use Scale (Calvo-frances, 2016). Fitness of the proposed model was estimated through structural equation modeling (SEM) and using Lisrel software package. The mediating relationship in the proposed pattern was tested using the bootstrap procedure.

The results of structural equation modeling indicating fitness of model and showed that the behavioral dimension of social anxiety mediated by the gender role of masculinity has an indirect effect on the internet abusive use (p<0.05).

The findings of the present study provide a useful framework for identifying the influential components in the field of socio-cultural psychology in the internet abusive use. The results of these findings emphasize the need to pay attention to the gender role of masculinity in reducing social anxiety and internet abusive use in students.