Rejection sensitivity as a vulnerability marker for depressive symptom deterioration in men

Abstract

Consistent across time and cultures, men and male adolescents older than 14 years of age appear underrepresented in mood disorders, and are far less likely than women to seek psychological help. The much higher rate of suicide amongst males suggests that depression in men might be underreported. One of the core human motives is to seek acceptance by others and avoid rejection. Rejection Sensitivity (RS) has been conceptualized as the cognitive-affective processing disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely respond to cues of rejection in the behavior of others. RS has been previously linked with the onset and course of depression, but—as yet—has not been investigated longitudinally in a clinical population. We investigated the predictive role of RS to symptom deterioration 6 months after end-of- treatment in 72 male inpatients with depressive spectrum disorder. The BDI was administered at intake, end-of-treatment and 6 month follow-up. RS scores were obtained at intake. Rejection Sensitivity had additional predictive power on BDI scores at 6 months follow-up controlling for BDI scores at end-of-treatment (ΔR2 = .095). The results are discussed in terms of the importance of targeting RS during treatment, and highlight the fact that therapeutic follow-up care is paramount. Future research should investigate possible mediators of the RS–relapse-to-depression association, such as self-blame, rumination, neuroticism, pessimism, emotion dysregulation, and low self-esteem.

High Rejection Sensitivity in Patients With Somatoform Pain Disorder

“…However, the positive association between RS and depressive symptoms may be in part attributed to the overlap of the same underlying symptoms. Recent research demonstrates that high levels of RS are associated with depression (23)(24)(25). For instance, Chango et al (25) found that high RS in mid-adolescence could predict depressive symptoms in later adolescence.…”

“…One recent review ( 22 ) also displays disturbances in RS across different personality disorders. Numerous studies have identified high levels of RS and hypervigilance for signs of rejection as predictors for depression ( 23 – 25 ). Results of a previous meta-analysis provide evidence for the association between RS and mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder and eating and bodydysmorphic disorder ( 26 ).…”

Ostracism, Psychological Capital, Perceived Social Support and Depression among Economically Disadvantaged Youths: A Moderated Mediation Model

“…However, on the contrary, some researchers believed that ostracism would elicit emotional reactions but not cause distress nor depression [ 21 ]. The determinant for depression was rejection sensitivity or how individuals remembered the experience of ostracism [ 22 , 23 ].…”

Rejection Sensitivity Mediates the Relationship Between Social-Interpersonal Stressors and Depressive Symptoms in Military Context

“…Additionally, individuals with high rejection sensitivity pay attention to potential rejection cues in a biased manner (61), have schema-congruent information processing biases (62), experience much more rumination (63), and have interpretation biases (64). Consequently, through the distortion effect of rejection sensitivity, people with a high level of social stress experience more depressive symptoms than do those with a low level of social stress (32,65,66).…”