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Longitudinal Relationship Between Emotional Insecurity and Adolescent Mental Health: the Mediation of Rejection Sensitivity and Moderation of Dispositional Mindfulness

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Abstract

Objectives

Mental health problems among adolescents are increasingly prominent. The negative effects of emotional insecurity on adolescent mental health have garnered empirical support. It is important to understand the psychological processes underlying this relationship. Using a longitudinal design, the present study aimed to reveal the explanatory mechanism of the association between emotional insecurity and mental health problems among Chinese adolescents by testing the mediating effect of rejection sensitivity and the moderating effect of dispositional mindfulness.

Methods

The participants were 1156 Chinese adolescents (45.00% male; Mage = 15.96) who completed self-report questionnaires regarding emotional insecurity, rejection sensitivity, mental health problems (depression, anxiety, and stress), and dispositional mindfulness at three time points during the course of half a year (3-month interval).

Results

The results showed that retrospective reports of emotional insecurity in wave 1 were positively associated with adolescent depression, anxiety, and stress in wave 3 and that rejection sensitivity in wave 2 partly mediated this association. Furthermore, dispositional mindfulness in wave 3 moderated the pathway from rejection sensitivity to later adolescent depression, anxiety, and stress in the mediated model. Specifically, the effect of high rejection sensitivity on mental health problems was weaker in adolescents who reported high dispositional mindfulness.

Conclusions

Identifying the mechanisms by which emotional insecurity is associated with adolescent mental health problems over time has potential value for prevention and intervention.

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Data Availability

All data are available at the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/9qt43/).

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No. 31800929] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [Grant No. 2020NTSS42].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education (Beijing Normal University), Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Si Yu, Jingyuan Huang, Siyi Fan & Wei Xu

  2. Dongfanghong Middle School, Anding District, Dingxi, 743000, China

    Jinping Shi

  3. School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210097, China

    Wei Xu

Authors
  1. Si Yu
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  2. Jinping Shi
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  3. Jingyuan Huang
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  4. Siyi Fan
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  5. Wei Xu
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Contributions

SY designed and executed the study, assisted with recruitment of participants, conducted data analysis, and wrote the paper. JPS collaborated with the design of the study, recruited participants, conducted data cleaning, and edited the paper. JYH collaborated with the design of the study, and assisted with recruitment of participants. SYF collaborated with the theoretical conceptualization, design, and execution of the study, and assisted with data collection and the editing of the final manuscript. WX supervised the process and acquired foundation for this study. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wei Xu.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Biomedical Research Institutional Review Board of Beijing Normal University and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standard.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Yu, S., Shi, J., Huang, J. et al. Longitudinal Relationship Between Emotional Insecurity and Adolescent Mental Health: the Mediation of Rejection Sensitivity and Moderation of Dispositional Mindfulness. Mindfulness 12, 2662–2671 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01727-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01727-0

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