How negative automatic thoughts trigger Chinese adolescents’ social anxiety: The mediation effect of meta-worry

Theoretical and empirical evidence has found that negative automatic thoughts (ATs) are vital in the occurrence of social anxiety in youth population; however, the mechanism is rarely investigated in Chinese adolescents. This study aimed to discover the mediating mechanism of meta-worry (including meta-worry belief and frequency) on negative automatic thoughts and social anxiety in Chinese adolescents. Cross-sectional research design was used. Three hundred and fifty-seven adolescents were recruited to complete measures of meta-worry, social anxiety, negative automatic thoughts, depression, and demographic information. After controlling for depression, we found that meta-worry frequency mediated partially the relation between negative automatic thoughts and social anxiety in adolescents. In addition, participants’ age moderated the relation between negative automatic thoughts and meta-worry frequency. Our results shed the light on the metacognitive therapy in adolescents. Results are informative for metacognitive therapy suggesting that it could be more effective by targeting changes in the frequency of thoughts rather than changes in meta-worry beliefs.