Mediating Role of Social Interaction Anxiety between Fear of COVID-19 and Psychological Distress

Youth is the backbone of any society. Their mental health is worsening in these terrible times of pandemic. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate a relationship between fear of COVID-19 and psychological distress, and whether this relationship was mediated by social interaction anxiety. A cross-sectional research design was used to recruit online 200 university students of Lahore, Pakistan through Google docs via purposive sampling technique by introducing them to a demographic questionnaire consisting of fear of COVID-19, social interaction anxiety and psychological distress scales respectively. The sample included both male and female students (men =53%, women =46%) whose age ranged from 17-24 years (M = 21.04, SD = 2.52). Data were analyzed by using SPSS version 25. Pearson Product moment correlation and mediation analysis were used to analyze data. It was found that there was a significant positive association between fear of COVID-19 and psychological distress. The findings also revealed that social interaction anxiety fully mediated the association between psychological distress and fear of COVID-19. It is recommended that counselors and psychologists develop social support programs that can assist students to manage themselves well in the present pandemic environment.