Psychological Development and Education ›› 2020, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (6): 649-658.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2020.06.02

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Relations between Children's Rejection Sensitivity and Self-perception: A Cross-lagged Study

ZHANG Wen1, ZHOU Tong1, DING Xuechen1, ZHOU Nan2   

  1. 1. Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234;
    2. College of Preschool Education, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048
  • Published:2020-11-20

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Abstract: To explore the relation between rejection sensitivity and different types of self-perception, Children's Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (CRSQ) and Harter's Self Perception Profile for Children (SPPC) were used to collect 596 children's self-reported one-year longitudinal data and examined the relation through a cross-lagged analysis. The results indicated that: (1) children in middle school had significantly lower scores on the self-perception of cognition, social acceptance, physical appearance, athletic competence, behavioral conduct and general self-worth than children in elementary school; (2) among the data of the first and second year, children's rejection sensitivity were significantly and negatively associated with all indices of different types of self-perception; (3) according to the cross-lagged analysis, after controlling for the effects of gender, grade and self-stability, six types of self-perception at Time 1 significantly and negatively predicted rejection sensitivity at Time 2, but rejection sensitivity at Time 1 only predicted self-perception of physical appearance and general self-worth at Time 2; (4) the longitudinal predictive relations between rejection sensitivity and self-perception of self-worth and behavioral conduct were moderated by grade. Rejection sensitivity at Time 1 predicted self-perception of general self-worth at Time 2 significantly only for middle-school children, but not elementary school children. Also, self-perception of behavioral conduct at Time 1 significantly predicted rejection sensitivity at Time 2 for elementary school children, and not the other way around, which is the opposite to children in middle school. Self-esteem can be divided into different types of self-perception. These findings suggest that individual self-esteem is one of the important reasons for children's rejection sensitivity, especially for older children, which can enlighten future research on children's social cognition and mental health.

Key words: rejection sensitivity, self-esteem, self-perception, cross-lagged analysis

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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