Rejection Sensitivity and Children's Interpersonal Difficulties

Abstract

Some children respond to social rejection in ways that undermine their relationships, whereas others respond with more equanimity. This article reports 3 studies that test the proposition that rejection sensitivity-the disposition to defensively (i.e., anxiously or angrily) expect, readily perceive, and overreact to social rejectionhelps explain individual differences in response to social rejection. Data were from urban, minority (primarily Hispanic and African American) fifth to seventh graders. Study 1 describes the development of a measure of rejection sensitivity for children. Study 2 provides experimental evidence that children who angrily expected rejection showed heightened distress following an ambiguously intentioned rejection by a peer. Study 3 shows that rejection sensitive children behaved more aggressively and experienced increased interpersonal difficulties and declines in academic functioning over time.

A Longitudinal Rejection Sensitivity Model of Depression and Aggression: Unique Roles of Anxiety, Anger, Blame, Withdrawal and Retribution

“…For example, several studies have found that when adolescents and young adults are higher in RS they are more likely to react with aggression following the presentation of events that imply rejection (Ayduk et al 1999;Buckley et al 2004;Twenge et al 2001). Others have found similar results in young adolescents (Downey et al 1998b). In other studies, individuals had heightened tendency to withdraw from interactions following the presentation of events that implied rejection (Leary et al 1998;Williams 2001;Zimmer-Gembeck and Nesdale 2013).…”

“…RS theory (Downey and Feldman 1996;Downey et al 1998b) and previous research suggest that RS is associated with maladaptive behavioral responses to many social situations, as well as a range of emotional and behavioral problems, during adolescence and adulthood. However, the present longitudinal study was the first to consider anxious and angry forms of RS, and related processes, in order to simultaneously account for depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior.…”

“…Taken together, this body of research suggests two common responses to rejection threat -an aggressive or a withdrawn response. In turn, each of these maladaptive responses has been associated with increasing social and emotional problems over time (Downey et al 1998b).…”

“…It is known that some adolescents are more likely to have anxious expectations of rejection (RS anxious), whereas others may be more likely to have angry expectations (RS angry;Zimmer-Gembeck and Nesdale 2013) and it is believed that RS anxious and RS angry forms each accompany general social dissatisfaction and maladaptive behavior ). However, Downey et al (1998b) argued that there may be different correlates and consequences of RS anxious and RS angry forms. They asserted that RS anxious would be more strongly associated with internalizing problems, such as depressive affect and social anxiety, whereas RS angry would be more strongly associated with externalizing problems, such as aggressive behavior.…”

“…They asserted that RS anxious would be more strongly associated with internalizing problems, such as depressive affect and social anxiety, whereas RS angry would be more strongly associated with externalizing problems, such as aggressive behavior. It is known that anxious and angry RS relates differently to young adolescents' friendship conflict and conflict resolution (Croft and ZimmerGembeck 2014), and there has been some research that has measured anxious separate from angry RS (Downey et al 1998b). However, there has been no published study on the different internalizing and externalizing correlates of anxious vs. angry RS in young adolescents.…”