Linking Social Support, Social Anxiety and Maladaptive Daydreaming

Evidence from University Students of Pakistan

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the moderating role of social support between social anxiety and maladaptive daydreaming among university students. Furthermore,it was to examine the relationship among social anxiety, maladaptive daydreaming and social support among university students. The sample consisted of 200 university students (males=100, females=100), age range from 19 to 25, were recruitedfrom various universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad cities. Purposive sampling technique was used in a cross sectional design research. Three scales, Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale, Social Anxiety Scale and Social Support Scale were employed to measure Daydreaming, social support and social anxiety in university students. The results revealed that social anxiety was negatively non-significantly associated with maladaptive daydreaming(r=-0.07,n.s) and negatively significantly associated with social support (r=0.40, p<0.01) along with its subscales. In addition, it was revealed that maladaptive daydreaming is positively non-significantly related with social support(r=0.08,n.s) along with its subscales. The study also demonstrated that social anxiety was negativelynon-significant predicting maladaptive daydreaming (β=-.06, n.s) among university students. This study result revealed that social support was not moderating on the relationship between social anxiety and maladaptive daydreaming among university students. These findings imply that social anxiety and social support could stimulate maladaptive daydreaming in University students. This study incorporatedstudents merely from two major Pakistan’s cities. Therefore, its findings could not be generalizable to the whole Pakistani population. In future, exploratory and experimental researches with more assorted sample will be beneficial to clarify the mechanism through which social anxiety and social support affectmaladaptive daydreaming across student genders.