Rejection Sensitivity and Adjustment during Adolescence: Do Friendship Self-Silencing and Parent Support Matter?

This study of 103 adolescents (Mage = 13.73 years) tested whether self-silencing in friendships mediates the associations between rejection sensitivity (RS) and friendship (support) and psychological adjustment (anxiety, depression, loneliness) during early adolescence. Parental support was examined as a moderator of the relation between RS and self-silencing. Results indicated that friendship self-silencing mediated the relations between RS and depression and friendship support. Evidence of moderated mediation was also found: RS and friendship self-silencing were related at high and medium levels of parental support but not at low levels when depression and friendship support served as the dependent variables. Findings suggest that future work on RS and self-silencing in the friendship context is needed and that medium and high levels of parental support may exacerbate certain difficulties associated with RS during early adolescence.