Social-Experience and Temperamental Predictors of Rejection Sensitivity: A Prospective Study

Rejection sensitivity (RS) is the tendency for individuals to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and overreact to interpersonal rejection. Existing theory presumes that early experiences of rejection cause RS, although few studies have assessed this prospectively. Also relatively unstudied are individual differences in temperament that may contribute to RS. In a longitudinal study, we examined whether early social experiences and individual differences in temperament predict RS assessed subsequently. Results showed that positive early social experiences (ages 6 and 9 parents’ relationship quality and age 9 peer support) negatively predicted RS at age 12 and that negative affect (ages 6 and 9) positively predicted age-12 RS. These findings may have important implications for RS-reduction efforts and for understanding the many domain-specific manifestations of RS.