Fear of Negative Evaluation among College Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Featured Article

Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma | 2025, Vol. 18, p. 973-981

Article Title

Fear of Negative Evaluation among College Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Anxiety Sensitivity

Authors

Francesca A. St. Pe; Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

Isabella K. Pallotto; Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

Jacquana L. Smith; Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

Angela Combs; Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

Abigail McCarthy; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA

Zoey Bass; Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

Cathleen C. Odar Stough; Department of Psychology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

Abstract

Fear of negative evaluation (FNE) impacts adolescent young adult (AYA) college students’ mental health through impaired academic and social performance. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are prevalent among college students and may play a role in exacerbating FNE symptoms. Early life stressors are associated with anxiety sensitivity (AS) which may contribute to the development or worsening of FNE. We examined predictors of FNE among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic, hypothesizing that AS would mediate the relationship between ACEs and FNE. Participants were 192 students (Mage=19.90, SD = 1.26; 66.7% female; 78.6% non-Hispanic White) from a public, midwestern university. Participants completed demographics, ACEs, AS, and FNE questionnaires during March and April of 2020. AS fully mediated the relation between ACEs and FNE. Students who experienced greater ACEs reported increased AS and FNE. Findings suggest AS may be a help in preventing further psychological distress from FNE among students who have been impacted by childhood adversity.

Keywords

Fear of negative evaluation; anxiety sensitivity; adverse childhood experiences; adolescent young adults; college students

Summary of Research

The article introduces fear of negative evaluation (FNE) as “the belief and anxiety that one will be critically judged in social situations,” noting that FNE can impair “academic and social performance” among college students. The authors explain that adolescents and young adults (AYAs) are especially vulnerable because this developmental stage involves heightened “cognitive, social, and academic demands” and increased sensitivity to peer validation and social judgment. Prior research linked FNE to “social anxiety,” “suicidal ideation,” “social media addiction,” and “academic stress and underachievement.” The authors argue that although predictors such as low self-esteem and inferiority have been studied, there has been little examination of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and anxiety sensitivity (AS) as predictors of FNE. ACEs were described as traumatic or stressful childhood events including “physical, emotional, sexual abuse/neglect” and household dysfunction, while AS was defined as “a heightened awareness of one’s anxiety symptoms and the belief that these anxiety symptoms are harmful.” Because AYAs experienced worsening mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, the study aimed “to examine predictors of FNE among AYA college students during the COVID-19 pandemic,” with the hypothesis that “ACEs would be positively associated with FNE” and that this relationship would be mediated by AS (p. 973-974).

The study included 192 undergraduate students from “a large, public university in the Midwestern United States.” Participants were primarily “female (66.7%), White (78.6%), and non-Hispanic (95.8%),” with a mean age of 19.90 years. Data collection occurred “during the early months of the COVID-19 shutdowns from March 2020 to April 2020.” Participants completed online self-report questionnaires assessing demographics, ACEs, anxiety sensitivity, and fear of negative evaluation. ACEs were measured using the ACE Questionnaire, AS was measured using the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3, and FNE was measured using the Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale. The researchers used descriptive statistics, correlations, and mediation analyses through the PROCESS macro in SPSS. Because “data [were] not being normally distributed,” bootstrapping analyses were used, and gender was included as a covariate because it significantly predicted FNE (p. 974-976).

The results showed that participants “reported moderate-to-high AS” and averaged 1.73 ACEs, with “60.9% of the sample having experienced at least one ACE.” The most commonly reported ACEs were “emotional abuse,” “parental divorce,” and “household mental illness.” Correlational analyses demonstrated that “total scores for AS, FNE, and ACEs were positively correlated with one another.” A significant direct effect was initially found between ACEs and FNE, indicating that students with more childhood adversity reported greater fears of being negatively judged. However, mediation analyses revealed that AS “completely accounted for the total effect of ACEs on FNE,” and once AS was included in the model, “there was no significant direct effect between ACEs and FNE,” suggesting “full mediation.” In other words, students with greater ACE exposure tended to experience heightened anxiety sensitivity, which in turn contributed to stronger fears of negative evaluation (p. 976).

The findings suggest “heightened FNE among participants with ACEs is largely driven by heightened sensitivity to anxiety symptoms.” They conceptualize this relationship as “a cascade of events,” where AYAs with elevated AS become increasingly “hypervigilant about their own physical, cognitive, and emotional responses to stressful events.” The authors argue that this heightened awareness may cause individuals to worry that others will notice anxiety symptoms and interpret them “as signs of incompetence and inadequacy.” The COVID-19 pandemic may have intensified this process because social interactions shifted online, increasing self-monitoring and anxiety about external perceptions. The discussion further notes that childhood maltreatment, particularly “emotional abuse or parental substance abuse,” may predispose individuals to fear their own anxiety reactions and “loss of control,” increasing vulnerability to anxiety symptoms and FNE (p. 976-977).

Translating Research into Practice

“The findings of this study have several important clinical implications. FNE is a key diagnostic criterion for the diagnosis of social anxiety, and is associated with several other mental health conditions (e.g., social media addiction, and suicidality), academic stress, and underachievement. Hence, understanding the connection of ACEs to FNE through AS allows for targeted, empirically supported treatments to alleviate later presence of greater psychological symptoms and subsequent harmful behaviors. Previous literature has supported that AS is responsive to interventions such as cognitive-behavioral treatments that utilize mindfulness techniques. Hence, treating AS could potentially alleviate the effects of ACEs on FNE, subsequently improving and preventing further psychological distress from FNE symptoms. Providing mental health resources that build on resilience, emotion regulation, psychoeducation, and effective coping strategies in tandem with traditional therapeutic approaches may aid in breaking the cycle of heightened AS leading to FNE in college students with ACEs. The mediating effect of AS on ACEs and FNE underscores the importance of a transdiagnostic approach to addressing mental health concerns in college students and the underlying mechanisms, ultimately improving the well-being of AYAs, particularly during challenging times. The study findings also highlight the importance of addressing AS in interventions that target FNE, particularly for students who have experienced childhood stress and trauma. Integrating interventions that target AS may be more effective in improving overall mental well-being than focusing solely on specific disorders. By targeting underlying mechanisms that cut across different psychological conditions, clinicians and educators may provide more comprehensive and efficient support to college students experiencing distress” (p. 977-978).

Other Interesting Tidbits for Researchers and Clinicians

“Although the current study is novel in assessing the relationship among FNE, AS, and ACEs among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to acknowledge several limitations. Data for this study was collected during the early months of the COVID-19 lockdown, a time marked by sudden changes to university policy and curriculum, and unpredictability from the status of the COVID-19 virus, followed by subsequent increases in mental health concerns among AYA student populations. Results should be interpreted in the context of this timeframe. Future research should examine the relationship between FNE, AS, and ACEs during a timeframe where COVID-19 does not restrict traditional academics, extracurricular activities, or social interaction to determine whether these findings are generalizable to AYAs outside the context of COVID-19.

Due to the cross-sectional design, causality cannot be determined, and relationships explored in this study can only be considered as associations. Future research should longitudinally examine the relation between ACEs and FNE and the role of AS in mediating this relationship over time. Additionally, the use of self-report to assess FNE and AS and retrospective-report of ACEs may have resulted in biased measurement of study constructs. Future research should utilize multiple methods and multiple raters, such as clinician or parent report of symptoms, to reduce the impact of bias. Additionally, current recommendations for measuring ACEs suggest using a dimensional approach that assesses individual exposure to each adverse experience rather than assessing ACEs as a binary.

The study’s sample was comprised of college students primarily identifying as female, non-Hispanic, and White from one university in the United States. This limits the generalizability of results to other diverse groups and samples of young adults who are not students. Future research should examine these variables within more diverse populations to determine whether current study findings can be replicated within racial and ethnic minoritized groups as well as non-student AYAs” (p. 978).