Social Anxiety and Benign and Toxic Online Self-Disclosures: An Investigation Into the Role of Rejection Sensitivity, Self-Regulation, and Internet Addiction in College Students

This work aimed to explore the relationship between social anxiety with benign and toxic online self-disclosures with the mediating role of rejection sensitivity, self-regulation, and Internet addiction. In this study, 358 students who were active members of social networks at the Mohaghegh Ardabili University, Iran were evaluated in the form of a structural equation model. The results substantiated that social anxiety could explain 47% of the variance in benign online self-disclosure and 27% of toxic online self-disclosure with the mediating role of rejection sensitivity, self-regulation, and Internet addiction. It was found that people with high social anxiety had higher rejection sensitivity and lower self-regulation. Also, people with higher social anxiety had directly higher benign and toxic online self-disclosures. The results indicated that self-regulation did not have a direct impact on benign online self-disclosure; however, it had a direct negative impact on toxic online self-disclosure.