The Effect Of Parental Psychological Control On Social Avoidance And Distress Of Senior High School Students:Mediation And Intervention Of Rejection Sensitivity

Adolescents are in the prime of youth,their self-consciousness is gradually awakening,making them care more about how others view them and extremely sensitive to rejection,so this is a critical period for the increase of rejection sensitivity.Adolescents with high rejection sensitivity tend to perceive ambiguous behaviors as rejection,and thus experience negative emotions like anxiety,distress and pain,which over time leads to social anxiety and social avoidance as common problems affecting the mental health of adolescents.Sensitivity to rejection may originate from poor parentchild relationships early in life,which may gradually form a relatively stable internal working model of self and others,affecting the establishment of interpersonal relationships.This study aimed to investigate the current situation of parental psychological control,rejection sensitivity,social avoidance and distress among senior high school students,discover the relationship between them,and reduce senior high school students’ rejection sensitivity through group counseling.The study included two sub-studies.Study 1 tested 800 students from two senior high schools in Hubei Province and Guangdong Province by questionnaires to explore the relationship between parental psychological control,rejection sensitivity,social avoidance and distress in senior high school students.Study 2 selected 24 subjects with high rejection sensitivity,social avoidance and distress from Study 1,and randomly assigned to the experimental group and the control group.The former received rejection sensitivity group counseling intervention to test the effectiveness of rejection sensitivity group counseling in reducing rejection sensitivity and thus decreasing social avoidance and distress among senior high school students.The research conclusions are as follows:(1)In senior high school students,parental psychological control,rejection sensitivity,social avoidance and distress separately correlated with each other.(2)In senior high school students,Parental psychological control and rejection sensitivity positively predict social avoidance and distress;Parental psychological control positively predicts rejection sensitivity.(3)In senior high school students,rejection sensitivity partially mediates the relationship between parental psychological control and social avoidance and distress.(4)In senior high school students,rejection sensitivity group counseling can significantly reduce rejection sensitivity,thereby decreasing social avoidance and distress.