Parent relationships and adolescents' depression and social anxiety: Indirect associations via emotional sensitivity to rejection threat

Abstract

One prominent theory has proposed that rejection and other negative parenting practices prompt children's emotional sensitivity to the threat of rejection, often referred to as rejection sensitivity (RS). This emotional sensitivity is thought to result in social and emotional maladjustment. In the present study, we tested this model of parenting, emotional sensitivity, and maladjustment with 659 early adolescents (aged 9-13 years). The findings confirmed that adolescents who reported more negative parenting practices had elevated depression and social anxiety symptoms, heightened levels of RS, and more elevated sadness and withdrawal responses to rejection threat. In a final structural equation model, RS and withdrawal were uniquely associated with depressive symptoms, and RS, sadness, and withdrawal were uniquely associated with social anxiety. Moreover, negative parenting had significant associations with symptoms both directly and indirectly via RS, sadness, and/or withdrawal, with the effects mostly direct for depressive symptoms and mostly indirect for social anxiety symptoms. Interparental conflict was also implicated in adolescents' RS, reactions to rejection threat, and symptoms, but these correlational effects were almost entirely indirect via parenting practices. An alternate model of depression and anxiety predicting sensitivity to rejection threat was tested and found to be equally viable. The findings provide a more nuanced understanding of the links between rejection and adolescent emotional adjustment.

Emotion beliefs in social anxiety disorder: Associations with stress, anxiety, and well‐being

“…Third, although the current study documents robust cross‐sectional associations between emotion beliefs, perceived stress, anxiety, and well‐being, we still know little about the origins and developmental course of emotion beliefs—such as the potential role that parental messages and parenting practices may play in this process (see for example Monti, Rudolph & Abaied, ; Rudolph & Zimmer‐Gembeck, , this issue). More research is also needed to better understand the causal links between emotion beliefs, perceived stress, anxiety and well‐being, and the implications these beliefs might have for psychosocial interventions and long‐term recovery.…”

Young Adolescents’ Body Dysmorphic Symptoms: Associations with Same- and Cross-Sex Peer Teasing via Appearance-based Rejection Sensitivity

“…Similar to research on general rejection sensitivity that has shown that it is a mediator linking social adversity to symptoms of mental health problems (London et al 2007;Rudolph and Zimmer-Gembeck 2014;, heightened sensitivity in the form of greater expectations and anxiety about rejection because of physical appearance, recently labeled as appearance-based rejection sensitivity (appearance-RS), may partially explain why adverse social experiences and social anxiety are associated with greater symptoms of BDD (Fang et al 2011;Lavell et al 2014). Like BDD, appearance-RS is thought to develop from a history of victimization (Park 2007).…”

The Role of Family for Youth Friendships: Examining a Social Anxiety Mechanism

“…Moreover, they tend to view interpersonal relationships as untrustworthy, unsafe, hostile, and threatening and may become hypervigilant and hypersensitive to rejection in other social relationships (Rohner, 2004); these experiences may lead them to feel more socially anxious. Parenting characterized by low parental warmth, high rejection, and high overprotection, are associated with youth social phobia (Knappe et al, 2009; Rudolph & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2014). Attachment theory postulates that youth, in the context of their relationships to their parents, develop attitudes and expectations that shape the formation and experience of interpersonal relationships outside of the family context (Bowlby, 1973).…”

“…Infants with ambivalent attachment at the first year of life have more social anxiety symptoms at age 11 (Bar-Haim, Dan, Eshel, & Sagi-Schwartz, 2007) and are more likely to develop anxiety disorders at age 17, after controlling for mothers’ anxiety and youth temperament (Warren, Huston, Egeland, & Sroufe, 1997). Despite the progress made linking family experiences with social anxiety, this work largely presents a narrow view of family relationships: most studies have not considered father-child relationship and mother-child relationship independently, and the influence of the broader family climate has been largely neglected (e.g., Bar-Haim et al, 2007; Rudolph & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2014). Moreover, the relationship between parenting and social anxiety may be bidirectional, but this notion remains largely untested.…”