The relationship of rejection sensitivity to aggression and social withdrawal in children

This study examined the relationship of rejection sensitivity (anxious feelings, angry feelings, and expectations of rejection) to self-observed overt and relational aggression and social withdrawal in children. Previous findings provide preliminary evidence that a relationship between rejection sensitivity and aggression may exist, but previous studies have rarely looked at aggression in isolation from other forms of negative interpersonal behavior. Furthermore, the relationship between anxious feelings and social withdrawal warranted investigation as the internalizing literature suggests the possibility of such a relationship.;Participants included 107 fifth grade children from two public schools. A correlational design was used. Participants' degree of rejection sensitivity was assessed via Downey and colleagues' self-report measure, and for exploratory purposes, affective dimensions of rejection sensitivity were also assessed via self-observation. Participants' overt aggression, relational aggression and social withdrawal in rejection situations were assessed via self-observation. Children kept self-observation diaries by recording situations in which they felt rejected, as well as by recording their behaviors and feelings in response to these situations. Participants completed diary entries for 10 days. Participants' general tendencies towards overt aggression, relational aggression and social withdrawal were assessed via teacher report. Participants' self-reported general tendencies towards anxiety were also assessed using the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale.;Results varied based on whether components of rejection sensitivity were assessed via the traditional self-report measure or via the self-observation measure. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that self-reported anxious feelings and angry feelings in response to hypothetical rejection situations were interchangeable in their prediction of self-observed social withdrawal in response to rejection. Self-observed anxious feelings were not significantly related to self-observed social withdrawal. Self-reported anxious and angry feelings were not related to self-observed overt and relational aggression. However, self-observed angry feelings were significantly related to self-observed relational and overt aggression in response to rejection. Self-observed anxious feelings correlated positively with self-observed overt aggression. Exploratory analyses examining the model of rejection sensitivity provided mixed support for the model as it has been conceptualized in the literature. In particular, self-reported expectations of rejection were largely unrelated to self-observed negative responses to rejection. The theoretical and clinical implications of the results are discussed.