Faculty of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality, Ministry of Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
Department of Educational Psychology, Research, and Evaluation, University of Missouri, St. Louis, MO, USA.
Psychol Rep. 2024 Apr;127(2):786-806. doi: 10.1177/00332941221125771. Epub 2022 Sep 14.
Reactive aggression is an aggressive response to a perceived threat or provocation. It has detrimental effects on individuals and society. Rejection sensitivity, a disposition that one tends to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and intensely react to social rejection, has been associated with reactive aggression. Considering that the mechanism underlying this link remains unclear, this study explores the mediating role of loneliness and maladaptive coping. Participants included 1104 early adults between the ages of 17-23 ( = 20.35, = 1.11, 33.6% men) in China who completed the Chinese version of the Tendency to Expect Rejection Scale, Loneliness Scale, Ways of Coping Questionnaire, and Reactive-Active Aggression Questionnaire. The serial mediation model revealed that loneliness and maladaptive coping independently mediated the association of rejection sensitivity with reactive aggression. More importantly, the chain mediating effect of "loneliness-maladaptive coping" also accounted for this link. The above findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationships among these factors and suggested that rejection sensitivity could positively be related to reactive aggression through loneliness and maladaptive coping.
反应性攻击是对感知到的威胁或挑衅的攻击反应。它对个人和社会都有不利影响。拒绝敏感性是一种倾向，即人们倾向于焦虑地期待、容易感知和强烈反应社会拒绝的倾向，与反应性攻击有关。考虑到这种联系的机制尚不清楚，本研究探讨了孤独感和适应不良应对的中介作用。参与者包括中国 17-23 岁的 1104 名早期成年人（ = 20.35， = 1.11，33.6%男性），他们完成了中文版的拒绝敏感性量表、孤独感量表、应对方式问卷和反应性-主动性攻击问卷。序列中介模型显示，孤独感和适应不良应对独立地介导了拒绝敏感性与反应性攻击之间的关系。更重要的是，“孤独感-适应不良应对”的连锁中介效应也解释了这种联系。上述发现有助于更深入地了解这些因素之间的关系，并表明拒绝敏感性可以通过孤独感和适应不良应对与反应性攻击呈正相关。
