The relationship between rejection sensitivity and social anxiety: Mediator role of post-event processing and moderator role of difficulties in emotion regulation

Socially anxious individuals experience significant distress, interpersonal disability, and impairment in daily functioning. Therefore, it is crucial to explore factors related to symptoms of social anxiety. Growing evidence shows that rejection sensitivity (RS), a cognitive-affective bias toward anxiously expecting rejection, is robustly linked to social anxiety. However, the exploration of the mechanisms underlying this association has been scarce. This research aimed to examine the relationship between RS and social anxiety among emerging adults and further investigate the mediator role of post-event processing (PEP) and the moderator role of difficulties in emotion regulation (ER). Data were collected cross-sectionally through convenience sampling. A total of 392 participants (%74.7 female) aged 18 to 25 years (M = 20.94, SD = 1.63) completed an online battery of self-report measures for social anxiety, depression, ER difficulties, PEP, and RS. Analyses were conducted using SPSS PROCESS Macro, while controlling for depression. Results indicated that RS is positively associated with PEP and symptoms of social anxiety. Besides, PEP is positively linked to social anxiety. PEP partially mediated the association between RS and social anxiety. There was no significant moderating effect of difficulties in ER in the association of RS with PEP or social anxiety. These findings illustrate that high-RS individuals are more likely to engage in a negative and prolonged review of their past social interactions, which is in turn linked with increased symptoms of social anxiety. Results deepen our understanding of the psychological processes underlying the link between RS and social anxiety by highlighting PEP as an important vulnerability for high-RS and socially anxious individuals. Keywords: rejection sensitivity, social anxiety, difficulties in emotion regulation, post-event processing.