Rejection Sensitivity and Sexual Minority Men's Social Anxiety Disorder: The Moderating Role of Sexual Identity Strength.

Abstract

Although gay-related rejection sensitivity (RS) is associated with social anxiety among sexual minority men, little attention has been given to the validity of gay-related RS measures and to individual differences that might moderate the association between gay-related RS and social anxiety. In a population-based sample of sexual minority men, Study 1 (N = 114) investigated the incremental validity of gay-related RS and showed that gay-related RS scores significantly added to the prediction of social anxiety symptoms, even after controlling for personal RS scores. In a clinical sample of sexual minority men, Study 2 (N = 254) examined interrelationships among gay-related RS, sexual identity strength, and current social anxiety symptoms and disorder diagnosis. Results revealed that the expected count of current social anxiety symptoms and the odds of social anxiety disorder diagnosis, as assessed with a structured diagnostic interview, increased as a function of gay-related RS scores. Sexual identity strength moderated these relationships, such that the associations between gay-related RS scores and interviewer-assessed social anxiety symptoms and disorder were only significant for those high, but not low, in sexual identity strength. Together, results from the present studies lend support to the incremental validity of gay-related RS scales in predicting social anxiety symptoms and suggest that sexual minority men who consider their sexual orientation to be self-defining might be particularly vulnerable to the mental health correlates of gay-related RS.