Bridging Fear of Negative Evaluation and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies: A Network Perspective on the Roles...

In the context of intensifying social pressure, college students' high sensitivity to negative evaluations significantly affects their mental health. This study uses network analysis to explore the network structure characteristics of Chinese college students' fear of negative evaluations, family functioning, and self-control, as well as their conditional associations with cognitive emotion regulation strategies (CERSs).

A convenience sampling method was used to conduct a cross-sectional online questionnaire survey of 5527 college students enrolled at three universities in Wuhan. The study employed the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale, Family Care Scale, Self-Control Scale, and CERSs Scale. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 26.0 and R Studio 4.5.1 software to construct a psychological trait network, identify core and bridge nodes, and analyze their associations with CERSs (adaptive and maladaptive).

BFNE9 (continuous concern about others' impressions) had the highest expected influence (EI); FC4 (family emotional support) and FC2 (family partnership) had high centrality, highlighting the core role of family functioning. Bridge analysis indicated that BS4 (difficulty controlling attention) was the strongest bridge node connecting different psychological dimensions, followed by BS1 (self-control) and BS7 (impulsivity). Flow network analysis further revealed that BFNE12 (fear of saying the wrong thing) exhibited the strongest positive association for both adaptive (ER1) and nonadaptive (ER2) CERSs, suggesting that expressive evaluation anxiety is strongly connected with multiple components within the emotional regulation network.

This study used psychological network analysis to reveal the complex interactive structure between fear of negative evaluation, family functioning, and self-control and highlighted the central role of expressive evaluation anxiety (BFNE12) within the network. The results provide a new perspective and theoretical basis for understanding the psychological mechanisms related to social anxiety in college students and for informing future research on potential intervention directions. However, given the cross-sectional design, causal interpretations cannot be inferred.