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Belonging is a basic human need, with social isolation signaling a threat to biological fitness. Sensitivity to ostracism varies across individuals and the lifespan, peaking in adolescence. Government-imposed restrictions upon social interactions during COVID-19 may therefore be particularly detrimental to young people and those most sensitive to ostracism. Participants ( N = 2367; 89.95% female, 11–100 years) from three countries with differing levels of government restrictions (Australia, UK, and USA) were surveyed thrice at three-month intervals (May 2020 – April 2021). Young people, and those living under the tightest government restrictions, reported the worst mental health, with these inequalities in mental health remaining constant throughout the study period. Further dissection of these results revealed that young people high on social rejection sensitivity reported the most mental health problems at the final assessment. These findings help account for the greater impact of enforced social isolation on young people’s mental health, and open novel avenues for intervention.

Sexual minorities are disproportionately affected by mental health problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, suicidality). Minority stress theory and the psychological mediation framework have become the predominant conceptual models used to explain these disparities, and they have led to substantial advances in research on stigma-related stress and mental health. However, the field’s reliance on these models has limited the extent to which other theories have been considered as potential frameworks for further advancing our understanding of sexual minority mental health. In this article, I discuss how the rejection sensitivity (RS) model can be used to complement and extend minority stress theory and the psychological mediation framework by: (1) emphasizing the role of perception in stigma-related experiences; (2) acknowledging the unique consequences of different anticipatory emotions; (3) describing additional mechanisms linking proximal minority stressors to mental health; and (4) further specifying the temporal order of these processes. I conclude by discussing the importance of attending to developmental processes in research on sexual orientation-related RS and describing important directions for future research.

Nowadays, depression has been a prominent mental health problem throughout the world. A common but negative social experience, social exclusion (also known as ostracism) is a great risk factor for individuals’ health and adaptation. Undergraduate students are in a development period of challenges and transitions, so they are vulnerable to suffering from depression and negative social experiences. Against this background, the present study aimed to examine the association between social exclusion and undergraduate students’ depression as well as the underlying mechanism - the mediating roles of rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy. Seven hundred sixty-two undergraduate students were recruited to participate in this study, who were asked to complete a set of questionnaires measuring social exclusion, depression, rejection sensitivity, and social self-efficacy. After controlling for gender, social exclusion was positively associated with undergraduate students’ depression. And rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy could significantly mediate this relation through three mediating paths - the separate mediating effects of rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy, as well as the serial mediating effect of rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy. These results could not only deepen our understanding of this theme, but also have several practical implications for the intervention of depression, for example, relevant social skill training and cognitive therapy could be adopted to intervene the rejection sensitivity and social self-efficacy.

We examined the temporal precedence between perceived peer rejection, rejection sensitivity, depression, and aggression in a sample of 544 adolescents (55.7% girls; Mage = 14.96 years at the first measured time point) assessed yearly from Grade 9 to Grade 12. Using developmental cascade modelling to analyze the data, our study supported the symptoms-driven and social process models, in that perceived rejection was preceded by either depression or aggression at different times across adolescence. Similarly, rejection sensitivity was also preceded by depression and/or aggression. Although depression initiated the cascade leading to rejection sensitivity, our model also supported a bidirectional relation across late adolescence as rejection sensitivity also predicted future depression. Overall, our findings provide support that internalizing and externalizing problems lead to interpersonal difficulties with peers, such as perceived rejection and demonstrate the unique role of rejection sensitivity with regard to depression and aggression independent from perceived peer rejection.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the mediating effects of attachment styles, rejection sensitivity and the Dark Triad personality traits on the links between relationship satisfaction and social media addiction. It is proposed that insecure attachment styles (i.e., preoccupied, dismissing, and fearful attachment styles), rejection sensitivity, and the Dark Triad personality traits (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy) are negatively associated with relationship satisfaction, which, in turn, is negatively related to social media addiction. The data were collected from 229 university students from 14 different universities in four different cities of Turkey. The results of the structural equation modeling analyses revealed that relationship (dis) satisfaction was a significant predictor of social media addiction; and also, it partially mediated the link of fearful attachment with social media addiction. Furthermore, the direct positive paths from fearful attachment, rejection sensitivity and psychopathy to social media addiction were significant. The findings were discussed regarding the theoretical and practical implications along with suggestions for future research.

This study’s aim was to examine whether there are negative increasing cycles of peer victimization and rejection sensitivity over time. Drawing from Social Information Processing Theory, we hypothesized that victimization leads to higher levels of rejection sensitivity, which would put adolescents at risk for higher future victimization. Data were collected in a four-wave study with 233 Dutch adolescents starting secondary education ( M age = 12.7 years), and a three-wave study with 711 Australian adolescents in the last years of primary school ( M age = 10.8 years). Random-intercept cross-lagged panel models were used to disentangle between-person from within-person effects. In each sample, a significant between-person association was found: adolescents with higher levels of victimization as compared to their peers also reported higher levels of rejection sensitivity. At the within-person level, all concurrent associations between individual fluctuations of victimization and rejection sensitivity were significant, but there were no significant cross-lagged effects (except in some sensitivity analyses). These findings demonstrate that victimization and rejection sensitivity are interrelated, but there may not be negative victimization-rejection sensitivity cycles during the early-middle adolescent years. Possibly, cycles establish earlier in life or results are due to shared underlying factors. Further research is needed examining different time lags between assessments, age groups, and contexts.

Interpersonal communication and interaction are important parts of college life. However, college students with high social anxiety fear others’ negative evaluation, feel distress, and avoid social situations, which adversely affects their academic achievement and mental health. Therefore, it is crucial to explore the factors that influence social anxiety. This research aimed to examine the relationship between rejection sensitivity and social anxiety among Chinese undergraduate students, and further investigated the multiple mediating roles of loneliness and self-esteem. A total of 618 Chinese undergraduate students (64.7% female) aged 17 to 25 years completed an online survey. Participants were recruited through online methods from several colleges and universities in the Zhejiang province of China. Significant correlations were found between social anxiety, rejection sensitivity, loneliness, and self-esteem. Higher rejection sensitivity was related to higher social anxiety, and loneliness and self-esteem respectively not only played a partial mediating role but also served as chain mediators between rejection sensitivity and social anxiety. These findings deepen our understanding of the psychological processes underlying the link between rejection sensitivity and social anxiety, which in turn provides a new perspective for college administrators, psychology teachers, college counselors, and parents to help promote undergraduates’ academic achievement and mental health.

Background Rejection sensitivity has a controversial impact on suicidal ideation. However, previous studies have always assessed the relationship between rejection sensitivity and suicidal ideation as a whole based on total scores, which has obscured the fine-grained relationship between them. Objectives The present study aims to investigate the fine-grained relationship between rejection sensitivity and suicidal ideation in college students based on network analysis, and to provide a theoretical basis for identifying potential targets for psychological intervention on suicidal ideation. Methods A total of 663 Chinese college students aged 19–28 years from Xian were investigated in an online study. The Tendency to Expect Rejection Scale (TTERS) and Self-rating Idea of Suicide Scale (SIOSS) were selected to investigate rejection sensitivity and suicidal ideation. Rejection sensitivity and suicidal ideation networks were constructed using R4.1.1 software to examine the links between the dimensions and to calculate the bridge expected influence (BEI) of each node. Results The prevalence of suicidal ideation among college students was 5.6%. The rejection sensitivity and suicide ideation network contained 23 cross-community edges, with the strongest one being the connection between S3 “Despair” and R17 “No confidence”. Within the suicidal ideation community, S3 “Despair” had the highest positive BEI value (0.50). In the rejection sensitivity community, R17 “No confidence” exhibited the highest positive BEI value (0.26), whereas R13 “Sense of collectivity” had the highest negative BEI value (-0.08). Conclusions Complex correlation pathways exist between rejection sensitivity and suicidal ideation. The bridge centrality indicators identified in this study serve as guides for relevant personnel to implement targeted interventions, thereby effectively preventing and mitigating the emergence and persistence of suicidal ideation among college students.

The aim of the study was to translate, adapt and validate the original 13-item English version of Interpersonal Rejection Sensitivity Scale (IRSS; Rohner et al., 2020) into Urdu language to facilitate administration on Pakistani adults. The study followed three stages: Translation and adaptation, linguistic equivalence with cross validation, and establishing psychometric properties of translated Urdu version of IRSS. The sample for stage II comprised of 100 adults above 18 years of age selected through convenience sampling technique. The results showed significant correlation (r = .84) between both English and Urdu versions of the IRSS. Similarly, inter-item correlation of English items and Urdu items showed significant correlations with an exception of only item 3 and item 12. Moreover, value of Cronbach's alpha (α = .72) illustrated the internal consistency of Urdu version of IRSS. In stage III of the study, Exploratory Factor Analysis run on a separate sample (N = 200) of adults indicated that the Urdu version of the IRSS is a standardized measure like the original English IRSS as all the items were significantly loaded; only items number 3 and 12 that did not load on the scale. Therefore, after excluding item number 3 and 12 with the permission of Rohner Research Publications, it is concluded that the 11-item Urdu translation of IRSS is a valid and reliable scale (α = .83) to measure interpersonal rejection-sensitivity among Pakistani population.

We conducted this study to explore effective ways to reduce adolescents' nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). Grounded in the fourfunction model of NSSI, this study examined the effect of negative parenting styles, relationship insecurity, and emotional problems on NSSI among 1,408 adolescents in China. The results showed that harsh parenting, rejection sensitivity, and depression significantly and positively predicted NSSI. Further, rejection sensitivity and depression acted as both independent and serial mediators in the association between harsh parenting and NSSI. Our findings provide direct and indirect paths to reduce NSSI among adolescents, and provide a basis for future interventions.