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

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Zimmer-Gembeck, Melanie J
Gardner, Alex A
Hawes, Tanya
Masters, Mitchell R
Waters, Allison M
Farrell, Lara J
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2021
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Abstract

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.

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International Journal of Behavioral Development

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45

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3

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DP170102547

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Zimmer-Gembeck, MJ; Gardner, AA; Hawes, T; Masters, MR; Waters, AM; Farrell, LJ, Rejection sensitivity and the development of social anxiety symptoms during adolescence: A five-year longitudinal study, International Journal of Behavioral Development, 2021, 45 (3), pp. 204-215. Copyright 2021 The Authors. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.

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Psychology

Cognitive and computational psychology

Applied and developmental psychology

Clinical and health psychology

Social and personality psychology

Social Sciences

Psychology, Developmental

Rejection sensitivity

social anxiety

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Zimmer-Gembeck, MJ; Gardner, AA; Hawes, T; Masters, MR; Waters, AM; Farrell, LJ, Rejection sensitivity and the development of social anxiety symptoms during adolescence: A five-year longitudinal study, International Journal of Behavioral Development, 2021, 45 (3), pp. 204-215

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