Unraveling rejection sensitivity among university students through remembrances of parental acceptance–rejection and adverse childhood experiences

This study investigates how the contribution of the perceived maternal and paternal rejection in childhood and experiences of childhood trauma predicts rejection sensitivity in adulthood. Participants of the study were included from students in a public university in İstanbul (N = 357). The instruments that were utilized in this study are: the Personal Information Form, the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (Adult PARQ-Short Version; both mother and father versions), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-SF), and the Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (RSQ). Findings indicated that there was a positive correlation between rejection sensitivity in adulthood and perceived paternal rejection in childhood (r = .25, p < .01), a significant positive correlation between rejection sensitivity in adulthood and the perceived maternal rejection in childhood (r = .24, p < .01), and a significant positive correlation between the experiences of childhood trauma and rejection sensitivity in adulthood (r = .18, p < .01). Three measures of control (Adult PARQ-Father, Adult PARQ-Mother and CTQ-SF) explain 8% of the variance in the rejection sensitivity total score in adulthood. Perceived father rejection in childhood was found to be the largest unique contribution (β = .17), followed by perceived mother acceptance rejection in childhood (β = .16) for rejection sensitivity in adulthood; experiences of childhood trauma (β = .02) were not found significant, and CTQ-SF did not have a unique contribution in the multiple regression model.