Poster #213 - Stressful Event Exposure and Mental Health: the role of Sensory Processing Sensitivity in Children

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Children differ in their level of sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) - i.e., awareness of and reactivity to sensory input (Aron, 2002). Studies of sensory processing have historically focused on children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and other disorders (Tomchek & Dunn, 2007). However, neurotypical children also show a range of SPS, which has sparked recent interest in whether higher SPS may make children more vulnerable to the effects of environmental input (e.g., Pluess et al., 2018).

Stressful life events (SLEs) are known to undermine child mental health (Sanchez et al., 2013), and SPS may be one mechanism of effect. Thus, this study examined the indirect effect of SLEs on child internalizing and externalizing symptoms via SPS. Children ages 5-12 (Mage = 8.79; 92% Black or African American) and their primary caregivers (n = 92) were drawn from high poverty, urban environments. Parents reported SLEs (Kilmer et al., 1998), child temperament (Putnam & Rothbart, 2006), and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms (Achenbach, 2001). Parents reported child SPS using the 10-item sensitivity subscale (Boterberg & Warreyn, 2016) of the Highly Sensitive Child scale (Aron, 2002).

We conducted bootstrapping analysis with 5,000 bootstraps using PROCESS (Hayes, 2012) to examine the hypothesized indirect paths. Per recommendations of Aron and Aron (2018), we controlled for child dispositional negative affect in all models. The overall model for internalizing symptomatology was statistically significant [F(3, 71) = 6.34, p < .001] and accounted for 21% of the variance in internalizing. The model yielded a mean bootstrap estimate of the indirect effect of .08 (SE = .05). Because the 95% confidence interval did not include zero (0.009, 0.190), we concluded that the indirect effect was statistically significant. The internalizing model is depicted in Figure 1.

For externalizing symptoms, the overall model was statistically significant [F(3, 71) = 2.89, p = .04] and accounted for 11% of the variance in externalizing. However, the model yielded a mean bootstrap estimate of the indirect effect of .06 (SE = .05) and the 95% confidence interval includes zero (-0.011, 0.172). Thus we concluded that the indirect effect was not statistically significant.

Sensory sensitivity may be one mechanism by which stressful events undermine child mental health, at least in terms of internalizing symptoms. It is possible that increased exposure to threatening events heightens awareness and vigilance to environmental stimuli, which in turn results in the symptoms of anxiety and withdrawal that characterize internalizing. However, results must be interpreted in light of study limitations, including the cross-sectional nature of the study and the single (caregiver) reporter. Further discussion will focus on describing SPS in this sample of neurotypical children as well as integrating findings with theories of risk and resilience, developmental psychopathology, and differential susceptibility to both positive and negative environmental input.

Authors

• Marie E. Johnson, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Presenting Author

• Marcia Winter, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cathryn Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica L Greenlee, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Robin S. Everhart, Virginia Commonwealth University
  Non-Presenting Author