Rejection sensitivity and children's interpersonal difficulties.
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 rejection--helps 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.
Downey
G
G
Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA. gdowney@psych.columbia.edu
Lebolt
A
A
Rincón
C
C
Freitas
A L
AL
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000374:Aggression; D000786:Anger; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011386:Projective Techniques; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D012016:Reference Values; D012059:Rejection, Psychology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012938:Social Perception; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards; D014504:Urban Health