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

2021 ◽  
pp. 016502542199592
Author(s):  
Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck ◽  
Alex A. Gardner ◽  
Tanya Hawes ◽  
Mitchell R. Masters ◽  
Allison M. Waters ◽  
...  

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.

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (8) ◽  
pp. 1691-1700 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Naragon-Gainey ◽  
M. W. Gallagher ◽  
T. A. Brown

BackgroundAnxiety disorders are highly prevalent disorders associated with substantial psychosocial impairment, but few studies have examined impairment within specific anxiety disorders. Furthermore, it is unclear how change in different types of anxiety has an impact on change in impairment, particularly given high rates of co-morbidity. The current study assessed the temporal associations of impairment and symptoms of three common anxiety disorders in a large, diagnostically heterogeneous clinical sample.MethodData were collected from 606 treatment-seeking individuals at an anxiety clinic, most of whom subsequently enrolled in cognitive-behavioral therapy. Symptoms of panic, social anxiety and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), as well as levels of impairment, were assessed three times over 2 years. In addition to examining levels of impairment across diagnostic groups, latent growth modeling was used to evaluate the longitudinal associations of anxiety symptoms and impairment.ResultsThose with a principal diagnosis of GAD reported higher levels of impairment in some domains at baseline; however, at follow-up assessments individuals with social anxiety disorder reported greater impairment than those with panic disorder. Anxiety symptoms and impairment both declined over time. Change in all three anxiety symptoms was closely associated with change in impairment, but only GAD remained a significant (positive) predictor of change in impairment after accounting for co-morbidity.ConclusionsImpairment and all three anxiety disorders were closely associated, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Because change in GAD was most specifically related to change in impairment, treatment for those with multiple anxiety disorders could focus on treating GAD symptoms first or treating transdiagnostic processes.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonya V. Troller-Renfree ◽  
George Buzzell ◽  
Maureen E. Bowers ◽  
Virginia Salo ◽  
Alissa Forman-Alberti ◽  
...  

Background: Children with Behavioral Inhibition (BI) temperament face increased social anxiety risk. However, not all children with BI develop anxiety symptoms. Inhibitory control (IC) has been suggested as a moderator of the pathway between BI and social anxiety. The current study uses longitudinal data to characterize development of IC and tests the hypothesis that IC moderates associations between early BI and later social anxiety symptoms. Methods: Children completed a Go/Nogo task at ages 5, 7, and 9 years as part of a longitudinal study of BI (measured at 2-3 years) and social anxiety symptoms (measured at 12 years). To assess IC development, response strategy (criterion) and inhibitory performance (d’) were characterized using signal detection theory. Latent growth models were used to characterize the development of IC and examine relations among BI, IC parameters, and social anxiety symptoms. Results: IC response strategy did not change between 5 and 9 years of age, whereas IC performance improved over time. BI scores in toddlerhood predicted neither initial levels (intercept) nor changes (slope) in IC response strategy or IC performance. However, between ages 5 and 9, rate of change in IC performance, but not response strategy, moderated relations between BI and later parent-reported social anxiety symptoms. Specifically, greater age-related improvements in IC performance predicted higher levels of social anxiety in high BI children.Conclusions: IC development in childhood occurs independent of BI levels. However, rapid IC development moderates risk for social anxiety symptoms in children with BI. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex A. Gardner ◽  
Melanie J. Zimmer-Gembeck

Drawing from and extending rejection sensitivity (RS) theory, we tested a serial mediation pathway model, whereby perceived parenting practices were expected to be indirectly related to participants’ depressive and trait-anxious symptoms through RS, as well as emotional and behavioural responses to rejection. Participants were 628 adolescents and young adults (M= 19.8 years,SD= 2.6, 65.3% female) completing self-report measures assessing current perceived parenting practices, RS, emotion dysregulation, emotion suppression, social withdrawal, and depressive and trait-anxious symptoms. In latent-variable structural equation modelling, a latent construct of more positive (and fewer negative) perceived parenting practices was directly associated with offsprings’ lower level of depression and trait-anxiety symptoms. Also, there were indirect associations of parenting via RS, emotion dysregulation, suppression, and social withdrawal, regardless of whether the model focused on depressive or trait-anxious symptoms. The findings provide further support of the importance for adolescents and young adults to perceive that they experience warm and autonomy-supportive relationships with their parents (instead of rejecting, coercive, or psychologically controlling relationships); along with providing an extended model whereby anxious expectations of rejection associates with greater emotional difficulties through negative responses to difficult emotions and the tendency to withdraw from such experiences. Together, perceived parenting practices and rejection-related beliefs and responses seem to activate a pathway to elevated depressive and trait-anxiety symptoms.


Emotion ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1012-1022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrei C. Miu ◽  
Romana Vulturar ◽  
Adina Chiş ◽  
Loredana Ungureanu ◽  
James J. Gross

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