The Effects of Parental Rejection Recalled by Undergraduate Students on Interpersonal Problems: The Mediating Role of Rejection Sensitivity and Ambivalence over Emotional Expression
AUTHOR : 장하은, 이운경
INFORMATION : page. 69~91 / 2025 Vol.32 No.2
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between parental rejection recalled by undergraduate students, rejection sensitivity, two factors of ambivalence over emotional expression and interpersonal problem. Data were collected from 308 undergraduate students (138 males and 170 females) between the ages of 19 to 25 using a questionnaire method. The data were analyzed using path analysis to examine the pathways through which parental rejection, rejection sensitivity, and ambivalence over emotional expression affect interpersonal problems. The findings of this study are as follows: First, parental rejection had a significant direct effect on interpersonal problem of undergraduate students. Second, parental rejection had significant indirect effects on interpersonal problem through rejection sensitivity. Third, paternal rejection had a significant indirect effect on interpersonal problem through relation-involved ambivalence, while maternal rejection had a significant indirect effect on interpersonal problem through both self-defensive ambivalence and relation-involved ambivalence. Finally, parental rejection had significant indirect effects on interpersonal problem through rejection sensitivity and ambivalence over emotional expression. However, the direction of influence of two factors of ambivalence over emotional expression on interpersonal problem differed, with self-defensive ambivalence having a positive effect and relation-involved ambivalence having a negative effect on interpersonal problem. This study highlights that the importance of parental acceptance and rejection during childhood for interpersonal relationships in emerging adulthood, and showed the possibility of ambivalence over emotional expression as an active suppressive mechanism that may play as an adaptive role in the collectivist context and cultural aspect of South Korea.