Observational Assessment of Environmental Sensitivity in Infancy

• In Event: Recent Advances in Research on Highly Sensitive Children

Abstract

A range of reliable measures, including self-report, parent-report, and observational ratings, are available for investigating Environmental Sensitivity (ES) in children (Pluess et al., 2018; Lionetti et al., 2019; Sperati et al., under review). Yet, there are no direct measures of ES for infants, and traditional sensitivity markers are biased by a focus on negative emotions (Slagt et al., 2016). In the current contribution we present a new candidate observational measure for the assessment of ES in infancy. The measure includes a series of lab-based episodes to elicit reactivity to positive, negative and sensory stimuli. We will present the new measure association with (1) concurrent parent-reported temperament, to explore ES association with traditionally assessed temperament traits; (2) parental depression and stress during pregnancy, in line with the pre-natal programming hypothesis of post-natal plasticity (Pluess & Belsky, 2011); (3) physiological and behavioural responses during an emotion regulation task as ES is associated with stronger emotional reactivity (Lionetti et al., 2018). Currently available data are based on a sample of 35 infants of 3 months of age (40%F) with their mothers (mean age = 35 yrs., SD = 5 yrs.). During the last trimester of pregnancy, mothers reported on stress and depression. When infants were 3 months of age, mothers completed the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ-R) (Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003) and the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), 12-item scale (Pluess et al., 2020). Then infants were engaged in the lab in an observational procedure to assess ES, and in the Still-face paradigm (SFP) (Tronick et al. 1978), to code observed and physiological emotional reactivity and regulation strategies. ES in the sample was normally distributed (Figure 1). Results, reported in Table 1, showed that infants’ reactivity to positive, negative and sensory stimuli coded with the new ES measure were positively associated with each other. Positive bivariate associations were found between observed sensitivity and traditional ES markers as temperamental fear and orienting. Mothers’ reported ES towards positive stimuli, as captured by Aesthetic Sensitivity from the HSP scale, was positively associated with the infants’ ES in response to positive and sensory stimuli while maternal sensitivity towards negative stimuli, as captured by HSP Ease of Excitation, was slightly and negatively related to infants’ ES. Maternal depression and stress during pregnancy positively correlated with infants’ reactivity towards positive and sensory stimuli, but negatively with infants’ responses to negative stimuli. Data on observed and physiological emotion reactivity and regulation during the SFP are currently under coding and will be presented by the time of the symposium. To conclude, an observational measure of ES seems to be able to capture differences in ES in 3-month old infants. Specific patterns of associations between maternal ES, depression and stress and infants’ reactivity towards positive and negative stimuli potentially suggest that sensitivity towards negative, positive and sensory stimuli are differently predicted by different variables, or the existence of sensitivity types. More data on a larger sample will be available by the time of the symposium.

Authors

• Alessandra Sperati, University G. d'Annunzio
  Presenting Author

• Maria Spinelli, University G. D’Annunzio Chieti-Pescara

• Mirco Fasolo, University G. D’Annunzio Chieti-Pescara

• Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London

• Francesca Lionetti, G. d’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara and Queen Mary University of London