Family influencing factors of college students’ social anxiety: the role and internal mechanism of parental psychological control

Objective To explore the relationship between parental psychological control and college students’ social anxiety, and to examine the mediating roles of trait mindfulness and rejection sensitivity. Methods A cross-sectional design was used, with data collected from March to June 2025. Convenience sampling was employed to select 586 college students from four universities of varying types in Zhejiang Province, China. Participants completed online questionnaires assessing parental psychological control, trait mindfulness, rejection sensitivity, and social anxiety. Data were analyzed with SPSS 26.0 and the PROCESS macro program (Model 6). Results Parental psychological control was positively correlated with social anxiety ( r = 0.498, p < 0.001) and rejection sensitivity ( r = 0.361, p < 0.001), but negatively correlated with trait mindfulness ( r = −0.483, p < 0.001). Trait mindfulness was negatively correlated with social anxiety ( r = −0.341, p < 0.001) and rejection sensitivity ( r = −0.265, p < 0.001), while rejection sensitivity was positively correlated with social anxiety ( r = 0.560, p < 0.001). Three significant mediating paths were revealed: trait mindfulness [ b = 0.039, 95% CI (0.008, 0.071), p = 0.015], rejection sensitivity [ b = 0.132, 95% CI (0.085, 0.181), p < 0.001], and their chain mediation [ b = 0.025, 95% CI (0.006, 0.044), p = 0.010]. The total mediating effect (0.196) accounted for 38.8% of the total effect of parental psychological control on social anxiety. Conclusion This study identifies several mechanisms linking parental psychological control to college students’ social anxiety and constructs a chain mediation model that integrates trait mindfulness and rejection sensitivity. It provides empirical support for targeted college mental health interventions.