Avoidant personality disorder is:

A) more common among men than women.
B) actually quite different from social anxiety disorder.
C) prevalent in more than 10 percent of the population.
D) associated with rejection in early life of a child.

Avoidant personality disorder is often linked to rejection, neglect, or criticism in childhood. It can cause a person to feel inadequate, hypersensitive to rejection or criticism, and avoid social situations for fear of being rejected or humiliated. It is not more common in either gender and is estimated to affect around 1% of the population. It can be similar to social anxiety disorder, but with a greater emphasis on social avoidance and fear of negative evaluation.