P87: Studying the Relationship of Mental Health, Social Anxiety and Fear of Body Imagein Adolescents: Investigating Role of Mediator Variables

Mental health in adolescents is influenced by several factors. Body image is one of the factors in predicting mental health. Moreover, it affects social communication and creates the social anxiety. The present study is cross-sectional and correlational. The statistical population is the guidance and high school students in Shiraz in 2013-2014 that 180 students include 101 girls and 79 boys were selected by cluster sampling. The age range of subjects was 12-18 years and the mean age was 15.4. The instruments used in this study were the general health questionnaire (GHQ), fear of body image of Littleton et al and social anxiety scale for adolescents (SASA). Data were analyzed using correlation and regression. There is a significant relationship between mental health and fear of body image(r =0.400, P<0.01). There is a significant negative correlation between mental health and social anxiety (r=0.213, P<0.01). Between social anxiety and fear of body image there is a significant relationship(r=0.280, P<0.01). Hierarchical regression shows that social anxiety variable plays a mediatory role in the relationship between the fear of body image and mental health. In this study, the role of fear of body image and social anxiety has been shown on mental health. The relationships among variables suggest that social anxiety have a mediatory role in relationship to fear of body image and mental health. Therefore, high fear of body image causes to increase social anxiety and high social anxiety reduces mental health. On the other hand, low fear of body image reduces social anxiety which, in turn, is associated with increasing the level of mental health.