ABSTRACT
Objective@#To identify the latent classes of various online social anxiety among middle school students and further analyze its correlation with depressive symptoms and sleep quality.@*Methods@#From October to December in 2020, a total of 1 402 students were randomly selected from 4 middle schools in Liaoning Province by convenient cluster random sampling method. Students completed the Social Anxiety Scale for Social Media Users(SAS-SMU), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale(CES-D) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI). Latent Profile Analysis(LPA) was used to identify online social anxiety types. Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the associations between online social anxiety, sleep quality.@*Results@#Online social anxiety among middle school students was classified into three potential categories: low online social anxiety type (47.00%, 659), medium online social anxiety type (43.37%, 608), and high online social anxiety type(9.63%, 135). Logistic regression analysis revealed that after controlling for demographic variables, medium online social anxiety type and high online social anxiety type significantly and positively predicted depressive symptoms ( β =1.22,2.23, P <0.01) with sleep quality ( β =0.85, 1.68, P < 0.01 ).@*Conclusion@#There is heterogeneity in online social anxiety among middle school students. Schools and families should pay attention to middle school students with high levels of online social anxiety to prevent depressive symptoms and sleep problems and to promote psychologically healthy development.