Rejection happens! Rejection sensitivity and perceived rejection in the context of high borderline and narcissistic traits

Objective: Heightened sensitivity to rejection is a feature of personality pathology, particularly of clinical and subclinical manifestations of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Yet, little consideration has been given to the differentiation between the cognitive and affective components of rejection sensitivity, to its trait and state aspects, as well as to its link with narcissistic functioning. Here, we investigate how pathological personality traits (borderline and narcissistic traits) relate to trait rejection sensitivity (expectation of rejection and negative anticipated emotions to rejection) and to experiences of state rejection in daily life, including a focus on the affective reactions to daily rejection. Methods: Community adults completed dispositional measures of rejection sensitivity, BPD traits, and pathological narcissism (grandiose and vulnerable traits). Then, they initiated a one-week Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data collection and completed measures of perceived social rejection and affective states in an event-contingent design: participants were instructed to fill in the EMA measures whenever they had a face-to-face or online interpersonal interaction with another person lasting at least 5 minutes. The final sample (N = 189, 149 women, mean age = 22.77) evaluated 2,971 interpersonal interactions (1,388 face-to-face), with a mean number of EMA observations per participant of 15.72 (SD = 7.49, range = 5-42). Results of multiple regressions indicated that vulnerable narcissism uniquely predicted anticipated anger and anxiety for rejection, while grandiose narcissism was only negatively associated with anticipatory anxiety for rejection (dispositional rejection sensitivity). As to state rejection, multilevel models indicated that borderline traits uniquely predicted higher experienced rejection in in daily life. Personality traits amplified some specific affective reactions to perceived state rejection: for example, borderline traits predicted higher self-directed aggressive impulses in response to perceived rejection. These findings highlight that sensitivity to social rejection is an important feature of maladaptive personality functioning.