Associations Between Rejection Sensitivity, Aggression, and Victimization: A Meta-Analytic Review

Abstract

Background: Rejection sensitivity (RS) is a personality disposition characterized by oversensitivity to social rejection; individuals who are sensitive to social rejection tend to anxiously or angrily expect, readily perceive, and overreact to it. The associations between (a) RS and aggression and (b) RS and victimization have been studied in recent years. However, the strength of these associations varied considerably between studies. This review aimed to synthesize the primary literature to improve our insight into these associations. Method: A comprehensive literature search yielded 52 studies (with a total of 66,405 participants and producing 203 effect sizes) on the RS-aggression and RS-victimization associations. Three-level meta-analytic models were used to synthesize effect sizes and to examine potential moderators of the RS-aggression association and the RS-victimization association, respectively. Results: There was a small but significant association between RS and aggression (pooled r = .183; p < .001) and a slightly below moderate and significant association between RS and victimization (pooled r = .298; p < .001). The RS-aggression association was stronger for angry RS than for anxious RS and stronger for reactive aggression than for proactive aggression. Similar results were obtained in analyzing the longitudinal associations only. Conclusions: RS is significantly associated with aggression and victimization. The implications of the results for clinical practice as well as directions for future research are discussed.

Exploring nonverbal synchrony in borderline personality disorder: A double‐blind placebo‐controlled study using oxytocin

“…These patients would thus be susceptible to an increase of social awareness/anxiety after administration of OT. A comparable effect has been documented with the concept of RS (Staebler et al , ): The tendency to anxiously or angrily respond to social situations (Gao, Assink, Liu, Chan, & Ip, ) was moderately to strongly associated with BPD (Foxhall et al , ; Gao et al , ). Administering inOT in BPD could therefore lead to an (unwanted and detrimental) increase of socially aversive responses.…”

Treatment Refractory Internalizing Behaviour Across Disorders: An Aetiological Model for Severe Emotion Dysregulation in Adolescence

“…Childhood rejection appears to be linked to rejection sensitivity, and rejection sensitivity has been linked to BPD [ 185 ], while high agreeableness and conscientiousness have been found to predict suicidality in relation to interpersonal trauma [ 186 ]. These findings are in line that being sensitive to rejection is related to increased levels of aggression and victimization [ 187 ], and that attachment organization has been found to be related to suicidal behaviour [ 188 ]. However, assessing developmental trauma is difficult, yet important because of increased comorbidity [ 189 ].…”

Effects of Rejection Sensitivity on the Development of Anxious-Depressive Attack in Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder

“…RS has been reported to cause clinically troublesome pathological states or conditions, as having suicide ideation (Brown et al, 2019), aggression and victimization (Gao et al, 2019), social-emotional maladjustment (Godleski et al, 2019), and low self-esteem and loneliness (Zhou et al, 2018). Furthermore, RS has been associated with depression, anxiety, loneliness, borderline personality disorder, and body dysmorphic disorder (Gao et al, 2017).…”