Longitudinal relationship of empathy and social anxiety among adolescents: The mediation roles of psychological inflexibility and rejection sensitivity

The purpose of study was to explore the roles of psychological inflexibility and rejection sensitivity in the relationship between (cognitive and affective) empathy and social anxiety among adolescents. A two-wave longitudinal design was adopted in the present study. A total of 2481 participants (41.60 % male; Mage = 16.48) aged from 13 to 21 in 2021 completed the Chinese Version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI-C), Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ), Chinese version of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II), Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth (AFQ-Y8), Child Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (CRSQ), and Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescent (SAS-A) at baseline assessment (T1), and completed the SAS-A again three months later (T2). (1) Results showed, personal distress at T1 could significantly and positively predict social anxiety at T2. (2) Mediation analyses results demonstrated that adolescents' experience avoidance and rejection sensitivity at T1 were significant mediators between cognitive empathy at T1 and social anxiety at T2, but with the opposite effect. As for affective empathy, rejection sensitivity at T1 significantly mediated the relationship between adolescents' empathic concern at T1 and social anxiety at T2. Furthermore, experience avoidance and rejection sensitivity at T1 significantly mediated the association between personal distress at T1 and social anxiety at T2. Cognitive and affective empathy had different roles in contributing to adolescents' social anxiety. The findings in the current study can also provide empirical support for targeting adolescents' social anxiety by reducing personal distress directly and decreasing experiential avoidance and rejection sensitivity indirectly.