Sexual Minority Adolescent Rejection Sensitivity Scale (Kiekens et al., 2022)

• Populations: Sexual Minority Adolescents
• Age ranges: 14-18
• Languages: Dutch, English
• Countries: Netherlands

Items

• Imagine that you are walking through the hallway at school and a group of students is walking in your direction. When you pass them some of the students start to laugh.*
• Imagine that you are instructed to work on a class assignment with a partner and no one wants to work with you.*
• Imagine that you are walking on the streets with some friends. You get the feeling that some youth are following you.*
• Imagine that a group of classmates are whispering together. They look in your direction and then continue to talk.*
• Imagine that some of your classmates are celebrating a birthday of another classmate. You are not invited.*
• Imagine that only you and a group of macho men are on a train. They look in your direction and laugh.**
• Imagine that you are giving a presentation in class and a classmate laughs at you.*
• Imagine that you are at work and a customer indicates they do not want to be helped by you. *
• Imagine that you are watching a series with a LGBT character in it. One of your parents enters the room and says that there are too many gay people on TV.*
• Imagine that someone in your family makes a joke about LGBT people.*
• Imagine that you are watching TV with your parents. There is a program/show about LGBT rights on TV. They change the channel.*
• Imagine that you are at a family celebration with your same-sex partner. You notice your relatives looking at you, but they don’t come over to talk to you.**
• Imagine that you are on a date with someone of the same sex at a restaurant. Your waiter provides you and your date with poor service.**
• Imagine that you are walking into a shop holding hands with your same-sex partner. Other customers stare at you.*
  
  

*These items were specifically developed for sexual minority adolescents
**These items were adapted from existing sexual orientation-related rejection sensitivity scales

Scoring

“Participants started by reading the following introductory text: “We are now going to present you with several situations. They all start with ‘Imagine that…’. Try to imagine as best as possible what this situation would be like for you. After every situation, there are two questions. Some of the situations are about a same-sex partner; you can also read this as a same-gender partner.” After each item, participants were presented with two questions. First, they were asked “How anxious/concerned would you be that [situation described in scenario] occurred because of your sexual orientation?” with answer categories ranging from 1=Very unconcerned to 6=Very concerned. Second, they were asked “How likely is it that [situation described in scenario] occurred because of your sexual orientation?” with answer categories ranging from 1=Very unlikely to 6=Very likely. The specific wording for both questions reflected the scenario that was described in the accompanying item. Scores of anxious expectations were calculated for each item by multiplying the responses to the two questions, similar to other RS measures (Dyar et al., 2016; Pachankis et al., 2008). This way, scores reflected the interaction between anxiety about and expectations of rejection.” (Kiekens et al., 2022)

Citations

Kiekens, W. J., Baams, L., Feinstein, B. A., & Veenstra, R. (2023). Development and Validation of the Sexual Minority Adolescent Rejection Sensitivity Scale. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 52(3), 971–989. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-022-02474-6