Bidirectional Associations Among Social Anxiety, School Engagement, and Social-Emotional Competencies (SEC) Among Chinese Rural Adolescents: A Four-Wave, Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model

Introduction: Social-emotional competencies (SEC) are central to human development and develop through complex social, psychological, and behavioral processes. Previous studies showed that social anxiety and school engagement were closely linked to SEC. However, the longitudinal dynamics among them are under-examined, especially in marginalized rural populations. This study aimed to examine the bidirectional associations among social anxiety, school engagement, and SEC across four time points among Chinese rural adolescents. Methods: Three thousand adolescents from a rural high school in Guizhou province were included in the present study (47.43% males, 52.57% females; M_age = 15.84 years, SD = 1.60). A random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) was employed for data analysis. Results: Results of RI-CLPM showed that, at the between-person level, school engagement was positively associated with SEC, and social anxiety was negatively associated with school engagement and SEC. At the within-person level, there were consistent positive bidirectional relationships between school engagement and SEC and negative bidirectional relationships between social anxiety and school engagement and between social anxiety and SEC. No significant sex differences were found in these associations. Conclusions: The findings support the bioecological theory, highlighting the dynamic interactions of social anxiety, school engagement, and SEC over time. Interventions targeting any of these factors may yield positive social-emotional and mental health outcomes.