Autistic Traits and Social Anxiety in Chinese College Students: The Longitudinal Mediating Role of Rumination.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Autistic traits (ATs) and social anxiety (SA) are closely associated; however, few studies have investigated the potential mediating mechanism of this relationship using longitudinal data. This study examined: (1) the developmental trajectories of ATs, rumination, and SA among college students; (2) whether the baseline levels of ATs predicted the developmental trajectories of SA; and (3) whether the trajectories of rumination mediated this longitudinal association.

Methods

This study enrolled 397 college students to complete Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire, Discriminative Response Scale, and SA Disorder Dimension three times over the course of a year. Three unconditional latent growth models (LGMs) were first used to explore the trajectories of ATs, ruminatio

SUBMITTER: Hou L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12507499 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature