CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 423Bullying, Victimization, and AggressionDeath Anxiety and Social ExclusionChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Rejection Sensitivity and Children's Interpersonal Difficulties

Downey, Geraldine, Lebolt, Amy, Rincón, Claudia, Freitas, Antonio L·1998·Child Development
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1998.tb06161.x
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

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.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1111/j.1467-8624.1998.tb06161.x

Cites

54 of 54 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Feelings of rejection and disappointment may lead to a host of negative emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes.

    “Feelings of rejection and disappointment, in turn, may lead to a host of negative emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes (Downey et al., 1998).”

    From The Test of Time: Predictors and Effects of Duration in Youth Mentoring Relationships (2002) · cites this paper as Downey et al., 1998

  • When such adolescents encounter cues that relationships will not proceed, however minimal or ambiguous, they may readily perceive intentional rejection from their mentors.

    “When such adolescents encounter cues that relationships will not proceed, however minimal or ambiguous, they may readily perceive intentional rejection from their mentors (Downey & Feldman, 1996;Downey, Lebolt, Rincon, & Freitas, 1998).”

    From The Test of Time: Predictors and Effects of Duration in Youth Mentoring Relationships (2002) · cites this paper as Downey, Lebolt, Rincon, & Freitas, 1998

  • The findings regarding early terminations are consistent with previous work which has demonstrated the particular vulnerabilities of youth to relationship disruption.

    “The findings regarding early terminations are consistent with previous work which has demonstrated the particular vulnerabilities of youth to relationship disruption (Downey et al., 1998).”

    From The Test of Time: Predictors and Effects of Duration in Youth Mentoring Relationships (2002) · cites this paper as Downey et al., 1998

  • The C-RSQ was developed and validated in a sample of fifth to seventh graders.

    “The measurement was developed and validated in a sample of fifth to seventh graders [167].”

    From Efficacy of a transdiagnostic Internet prevention approach in adolescents (EMPATIA study): study protocol of a randomized controlled trial (2024) · cites this paper as [167]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Downey, G., Lebolt, A., Rincón, C., & Freitas, A. L.
Affiliations
  • Columbia University (US)
  • Yale University (US)
Corresponding author
Downey, Geraldine
ORCID
Downey, Geraldine
Venue
Child Development
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
1998-08-01
Volume
69
Issue
4
Pages
1074-1091
ISSN
  • 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-8624
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-8624.1998.tb06161.x
OpenAlex
W1992292172
Cited by
417
References
49
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 15
FWCI
4.16
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Child Development (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
  • Yale University
  • National Institutes of Health (1r29mh051113-01)
  • National Institute of Mental Health (R29-MH51113)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Keywords
rejection sensitivity, social rejection, children, interpersonal problems, anger, defensive responding, peer rejection, aggression, academic functioning, individual differences, measurement development, Hispanic children, African American children
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adolescent Behavior, Aggression, Anger, Anxiety, Child, Cross-Sectional Studies, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Projective Techniques, Psychometrics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reference Values, Rejection, Psychology, Self-Assessment, Social Adjustment, Social Perception, Statistics as Topic, Urban Health, Reproducibility of Results, Expressed Emotion

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review