Rejection Sensitivity and Social Anxiety among University Students in Yemen

Authors

  • Sumaia Mohammed Zaid Faculty of Psychology, Sana’a University, Yemen/ Faculty of Educational Psychology and Counselling, University of Malaya, Malaysia
  • Sahar Mohammed Taresh Faculty of Early Childhood Education, Social Science Arts and Humanities, Lincoln University College, Malaysia
  • Muayad H. Aljumaili Faculty of Educational Psychology, Childhood & Motherhood Research Center, University of Diyala, Iraq

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.60072/ijeissah.2023.v2i01.004

Abstract

Background: People readiness to recognize and react to rejection can vary, those who detect purposeful rejection in slight or even imagined insensitivity of others react in a way that disturb themselves and others. This study examined the association between rejection sensitivity and social anxiety among Yemeni adults. Method: Correlational design was utilized in this study, and data was collected from 339 Yemeni university students (99 males and 239 females). Results: Almost 34% of the sample exhibited a high level of rejection sensitivity (RS); whereas 69% reported a low level of social anxiety (SA). There was no significant difference between males and females in RS level, however, females reported a higher level of social anxiety compared to males. Moreover, SR and SA were significantly and positively correlated though the correlation was low. Conclusion: Future studies need to confirm the strength of the relationship between RS and RA among university students.

Keywords:

Rejection Sensitivity, Social Anxiety, Yemeni Adults, University Students

References

Ahmad, R. J., Bayan, H., Faque, T., & Seidi, P. M. (2017). Prevalence of social anxiety in students of college of education—University of Garmian. Journal of Arts, Science, & Commerce, 8(3), 79-83.

Aune, T., & Stiles, T. C. (2009). The effects of depression and stressful life events on the development and maintenance of syndromal social anxiety: Sex and age differences. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 38(4), 501-512. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/15374410902976304

Downey, G., & Feldman, S. I. (1996). Implications of rejection sensitivity for intimate relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(6), 1327-1343. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.6.1327

Downey, G., Freitas, A. L., Michaelis, B., & Khouri, H. (1998a). The self-fulfilling prophecy in close relationships: Rejection sensitivity and rejection by romantic partners. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(2), 545-560. https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.2.545

Edwards, A. A. R. (2014). Youth reports of psychological maltreatment, social anxiety, and aggression: Evaluating rejection sensitivity as a mediator. Columbia University.

Erath, S. A., Flanagan, K. S., & Bierman, K. L. (2007). Social anxiety and peer relations in early adolescence: Behavioral and cognitive factors. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35(3), 405-416. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-007-9099-2

Fang, A., Asnaani, A., Gutner, C., Cook, C., Wilhelm, S., & Hofmann, S. G. (2011). Rejection sensitivity mediates the relationship between social anxiety and body dysmorphic concerns. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25(7), 946-949. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.06.001

Fehm, L., Pelissolo, A., Furmark, T., & Wittchen, H.-U. (2005). Size and burden of social phobia in Europe. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 15(4), 453-462. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2005.04.002

Feldman, S., & Downey, G. (1994). Rejection sensitivity as a mediator of the impact of childhood exposure to family violence on adult attachment behavior. Development and Psychopathology, 6 231-247. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579400005976

Grant, B. F., Hasin, D. S., Blanco, C., Stinson, F. S., Chou, S. P., Goldstein, R. B., Dawson, D. A., Smith, S., Saha, T. D., & Huang, B. (2005). The epidemiology of social anxiety disorder in the United States: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 66(11), 1351–1361. https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.v66n1102

Harper, M. S., Dickson, J. W., & Welsh, D. P. (2006). Self-Silencing and Rejection Sensitivity in Adolescent Romantic Relationships. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35(3), 435-443. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9048-3

Jarallah, H., Al-Omari, F., Altowairiqi, I., & Al Saadi, K. (2017). Magnitude of social anxiety disorder, and impact on quality of life among medical students. Journal of Psychological Clinical Psychiatry, 7(5).

Kawamoto, T., Nittono, H., & Ura, M. (2015). Trait rejection sensitivity is associated with vigilance and defensive response rather than detection of social rejection cues. Frontiers Psychology, 6, 1516. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01516

La Greca, A. M., & Lopez, N. (1998). Social anxiety among adolescents: Linkages with peer relations and friendships. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 26(2), 83-94. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022684520514

Levpuscek, M. P., & Berce, J. (2012). Social anxiety, social acceptance and academic self-perceptions in high-school students. Drustvena Istrazivanja, 21(2), 405. https://doi.org/10.5559/di.21.2.06

London, B., Downey, G., & Bonica, C. (2007). Social causes and consequences of rejection sensitivity. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 17(3), 481–506. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2007.00531.x

London, B., Downey, G., Romero-Canyas, R., Rattan, A., & Tyson, D. (2012). Gender-based rejection sensitivity and academic self-silencing in women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(5), 961-979. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026615

Mahmud, A., & Islam, M. R. (2021). Social Stigma as a Barrier to Covid-19 Responses to Community Well-Being in Bangladesh. International Journal of Community Well-Being, 4(3), 315-321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42413-020-00071-w

Marston, E. G., Hare, A., & Allen, J. P. (2010). Rejection Sensitivity in Late Adolescence: Social and Emotional Sequelae. Journal of Research in Adolescence, 20(4), 959-982. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00675.x

Melfsen, S., & Florin, I. (2002). Do socially anxious children show deficits in classifying facial expressions of emotions? Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 26(2), 109-126. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015665521371

Natarajan, G., Somasundaram, C. P., & Sundaram, K. R. (2011). Relationship between Attachment Security and Rejection Sensitivity in Early Adolescence. Psychological Studies, 56(4), 378-386. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-011-0108-8

Ng, T. H., & Johnson, S. L. (2013). Rejection Sensitivity is Associated with Quality of Life, Psychosocial Outcome, and the Course of Depression in Euthymic Patients with Bipolar I Disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 37(6), 1169-1178. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-013-9552-1

Olsson, A., Carmona, S., Downey, G., Bolger, N., & Ochsner, K. N. (2013). Learning biases underlying individual differences in sensitivity to social rejection. Emotion, 13(4), 616. https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033150

Peprah, P., & Gyasi, R. M. (2020). Stigma and COVID‐19 crisis: A wake‐up call. The International Journal of Health Planning and Management. https://doi.org/10.1002/hpm.3065

Radwan, S. G. (2001). القلق الاجتماعي دراسة ميدانية لتقنين مقياس للقلق الاجتماعي على عينات سورية (Social Anxiety: An empirical study to validate measure for social anxiety among a Syrian sample). Journal of the Educational Research Centerl, 10(19), 47-77. https://doi.org/http://hdl.handle.net/10576/8218

Reta, Y., Ayalew, M., Yeneabat, T., & Bedaso, A. (2020). Social Anxiety Disorder Among Undergraduate Students of Hawassa University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ethiopia. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 16, 571-577. https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S235416

Rimm-Kaufman, S. E., & Kagan, J. (2005). Infant predictors of kindergarten behavior: The contribution of inhibited and uninhibited temperament types. Behavioral Disorders, 30 (4), 331–347. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/019874290503000409

Rohner, R. P. (2004). The parental “acceptance–rejection syndrome”: Universal correlates of perceived rejection. American Psychologist, 59(8), 830-840. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.8.830

Romero-Canyas, R., Downey, G., Berenson, K., Ayduk, O., & Kang, N. J. (2010a). Rejection sensitivity and the rejection-hostility link in romantic relationships. Journal of Personality, 78(1), 119-148. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00611.x

Sanyal, N., Fernandes, T., & Khimani, A. (2016). Rejection sensitivity, rumination, flow and couple satisfaction in couples dating and living together and living apart. Kaav International Journal of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, 3.

Sun, J., Li, H., Li, W., Wei, D., Hitchman, G., Zhang, Q., & Qiu, J. (2014). Regional gray matter volume is associated with rejection sensitivity: a voxel-based morphometry study. Cognitive Affective Behavioral Neuroscience, 14(3), 1077-1085. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-014-0249-z

Weeks, A. (2011). The harsh sting of rejection: Rejection sensitivity, attachment styles, autobiographical memory, and why some feel the sting more than others. http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/psychhp/14

Weeks, M., Coplan, R. J., & Kingsbury, A. (2009). The correlates and consequences of early appearing social anxiety in young children. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 23(7), 965-972. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2009.06.006

Yu, Y. R., Youk, G. Y., & Lee, S. H. (2016). Factors Affecting Rejection Sensitivity in University Students. Asia-pacific Proceedings of Applied Science and Engineering for Better Human Life, 7 62-67.

Zaid, S. M. R., Jamaluddin, S., Baharuldin, Z., & Taresh, S. M. (2020). Psychometric properties of an adapted Yemeni version of rejection sensitivity questionnaire. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 28(3), 2149-2165.

Published

18-12-2023

How to Cite

Zaid, S. M. ., Mohammed Taresh, S. ., & H. Aljumaili, M. . (2023). Rejection Sensitivity and Social Anxiety among University Students in Yemen. International Journal of Emerging Issues in Social Science, Arts and Humanities ( IJEISSAH), 2(1), 31-41. https://doi.org/10.60072/ijeissah.2023.v2i01.004