There has been an increasing trend regarding the mental well-being of Chinese college students, where social anxiety (SA) and intimacy avoidance (IA) constitute two socially induced conditions that have their origins in childhood family relations. The present scoping review has highlighted the family-based precursors of SA and intimacy-related avoidance amongst Chinese college students from 2010 to 2025, with about 45 articles being collected from seven databases through a Population-Concept-Context approach using PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Three family variables – parenting style, parent-child attachment, and family functioning – were found to be the key family-based precursors of these two outcomes, which showed small-to-moderate correlations (r = .20 to .40). The SA stream included about 32 articles based on an established set of instruments while the IA stream involved around 11 articles whose instruments had a less localized approach to the concept with little integration of cultural context like face concern, dual filial piety, and marriage anxiety. Self-esteem, emotion regulation, and adult attachment were found to be the most frequent mediators. The noted disparity is due to research interest not phenomenological reality and requires the use of longitudinal studies, double outcomes models, paternal role specification, and culturally relevant instrumentation.
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