The investigation of the mediating role of rejection sensitivity and emotion regulation difficulties in the relationship between perceived parental acceptance-rejection and psychological symptoms in university students

In the study, it was aimed to investigate the mediating role of rejection sensitivity and emotion dysregulation between perceived parental acceptance-rejection and psychological symptoms. The sample of the study consists of 405 undergraduate students at Hacettepe University. Demographic Information Form, Parental AcceptanceRejection Scale, Rejection Sensitivity Scale, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and Short Symptom Inventory were applied to the participants in order to measure the variables in the study. SPSS program was used for statistical evaluation of research data. Pearson's Product-Moment Correlation, One Way Multifactor Variance (MANOVA) and Serial Multiple Mediator Analysis were conducted to answer research questions. When the results of the study were evaluated, statistically significant relationships were found between perceived parental acceptance-rejection, rejection sensitivity, emotional dysregulation and psychological symptom. Also, a statistically significant relationship was found between perceived mother rejection and the number of siblings. According to the results of Serial Multiple Mediator Analysis, it was determined that there was partial mediation roles of rejection sensitivity and emotion dysregulation in the relationship between perceived parental rejection and psychological symptom levels. These findings can be interpreted as perceived parental rejection sensitises the individuals against rejection, causes them issues about emotion dysregulation and thus, revealing psychological symptoms accordingly. When the indirect effects of parental rejection on psychological symptoms were analyzed, the effects of emotion dysregulation, rejection sensitivity and emotional dysregulation were found to be statistically significant. Nevertheless, the way that perceived parental rejection affects psychological symptoms through rejection sensitivity was not found significant. In other words, it is observed that parental rejection may affect psychological symptoms by increasing emotion dysregulation and it may increase psychological symptom levels through rejection sensitivity and emotion dysregulation serial multiple mediator as well. Finally, clinical implications and limitations of the study have been explained and suggestions have been made for future studies. Keywords: Parental Acceptance-Rejection, Rejection Sensitivity, Emotion Dysregulation, Psychological Symptoms