Social Anxiety and Decision-Making Among University Students: The Mediating Role of Life Satisfaction

Abstract

University students make some of the most consequential decisions of their lives, yet surprisingly little research has looked at how social anxiety shapes that process. This study examined whether life satisfaction mediates the relationship between social anxiety and decision-making among undergraduates, and whether the pattern differs by gender, residential background, and age. Two hundred and eighty-four undergraduates (144 men, 140 women; M age = 20.5 years, SD = 1.8) from a public university in Pakistan completed the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, the Decision-Making Questionnaire, and the Satisfaction with Life Scale in a cross-sectional survey. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation, regression-based mediation analysis, independent-samples t tests, and one-way ANOVA. All eight study variables correlated significantly with one another. Life satisfaction partially mediated the relationship between decision-making and each anxiety and avoidance index performance, social, and overall, with every indirect effect significant at p < .001; the mediation models accounted for between 81.5% and 86.7% of the variance in decision-making. Male, urban, and older students reported better decision-making and higher life satisfaction than their female, rural, and younger counterparts, who also reported higher anxiety and avoidance. Together, these results suggest that social anxiety affects decision-making both directly and by lowering life satisfaction, and that raising life satisfaction could be a useful target for counseling interventions aimed at helping students decide more confidently.