Rejection sensitivity and the development of social anxiety symptoms during adolescence: A five-year longitudinal study

• Published in: International journal of behavioral development 2021-05, Vol.45 (3), p.204-215
• Main Authors: Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie J., Gardner, Alex A., Hawes, Tanya, Masters, Mitchell R., Waters, Allison M., Farrell, Lara J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent girls; Adolescents; Anxiety Disorders; At Risk Persons; Bias; Emotional Adjustment; Emotional regulation; Foreign Countries; Gender; Gender Differences; Growth models; Instructional Program Divisions; Longitudinal studies; Negative emotions; Peer Influence; Peer rejection; Personality Traits; Predictor Variables; Protective factors; Rejection (Psychology); Self Concept; Selfworth; Social anxiety; Social development; Social experiences; Symptoms (Individual Disorders); Temperament
• ISSN: 0165-0254; 1464-0651
• DOI: 10.1177/0165025421995921

Rejection sensitivity is a bias toward expecting rejection that can result from negative social experiences and degrade emotional adjustment. In this study, rejection sensitivity was expected to predict patterns of adolescent social anxiety over 5 years when considered alongside other known or expected risk and protective factors: peer rejection (peer-reported), emotion dysregulation, self-worth, temperament (parent-reported), female gender, and grade. Participants were 377 Australian students (45% boys; 79% White, 15% Asian) aged 10 to 13 years (M = 12.0, SD = .90) and their parents (84%) who completed seven repeated surveys across 5 years. In an unconditional latent growth model, social anxiety symptoms had a significant quadratic pattern of growth, with symptoms increasing about midway into the study when adolescents were age 14, on average. In a model with all predictors, rejection sensitivity was uniquely associated with a higher intercept and a more pronounced quadratic growth pattern of social anxiety symptoms. Other predictors of growth in symptoms were the temperamental trait of negativity affectivity and emotion dysregulation; negative affectivity was associated with a higher intercept and a more pronounced quadratic pattern, and emotion dysregulation was associated with a higher intercept and a less pronounced quadratic pattern. Gender was associated with the intercept, with girls higher in symptoms than boys.