ABSTRACT Intergroup interactions are often fraught with fear of rejection and intergroup anxiety—emotional reactions that undermine efforts to build inclusive societies. The current research investigates how race‐based rejection sensitivity and intergroup anxiety evolve across the adult lifespan. Drawing on 15 annual waves of longitudinal data from a national sample of 60,967 ethnic majority and minority adults, we used cohort‐sequential latent growth modelling to examine age, period and cohort effects on race‐based rejection sensitivity and intergroup anxiety. Results reveal that changes in race‐based rejection sensitivity largely emerge as a result of normative ageing (i.e., age effects) among both ethnic majorities and minorities, whereas changes in intergroup anxiety among both ethnic majority and minority groups are best explained by specific societal events (i.e., period effects). Collectively, this study provides novel insights into how concerns over race‐based rejection and intergroup anxiety change across the lifespan.
Yogeeswaran et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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