Rejection Sensitivity Mediating The Influence Of Social Anxiety On Body Dysmorphic Concerns: A Comparison Of Indian Students And Employees

This study focuses upon social anxiety, rejection sensitivity, and body image concerns, investigating whether rejection sensitivity mediates this relationship and explores the moderating effects of employment status and state anxiety. Following a quantitative research design, data was gathered from 111 participants. The sample was balanced between academic and professional settings. Pearson’s correlations showed strong associations among social anxiety (SIAS & SPS) and body dysmorphic concerns (BICI). Rejection Sensitivity portrayed low reliability so its dimensions, Rejection Concern (RejConc) and Rejection expectancy (Rejexp) were used. Mediation analysis revealed that rejection concern (RejConc) partially mediated this relationship, while rejection expectancy (RejExp) was not a significant mediator. Moderated mediation analysis indicated that the mediating role of RejConc was significant only for employed individuals, suggesting occupational status influences the of social anxiety on body dysmorphic concerns. No moderating effect of state anxiety was observed attributed to multicollinearity issues. This study opens avenues for future researchers towards studying additional moderating factors, like personality traits and self-esteem, and to employ longitudinal designs clarifying the directional relationships among social anxiety, rejection sensitivity, and body dysmorphic concerns.