Abstract:Objective To explore the associations between social anxiety and children’s adjustment and the potential mediating effect of emotion-focused coping strategies. Methods A sample of 594 students from grade four to six was administrated with social anxiety scale for children-revised (SASC-r), self-report coping scale(SCS), childhood depression inventory (CDI), and peer nominations. The head teachers completed the teacher-child rating scale (TCRS) to evaluate children’s school competence. Results ① Gender differences were found in social anxiety, depression, peer preference and school competence. Girls had higher scores on social anxiety, peer preference and school competence, but lower scores on depression. ② Social anxiety was positively associated with emotion-focused coping strategies and depression, but negatively associated with peer preference and school competence. ③ The relationships between social anxiety and adjustment variables were mediated by emotion-focused coping strategies partially, the mediating effects were 34%, 64%, and 55%, respectively. Conclusion Emotion-focused coping strategies play an important role in the relationships between social anxiety and children’s adjustment.