Recent Advances in Research on Highly Sensitive Children

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

According to several theories of environmental sensitivity (Pluess, 2015), children differ in their susceptibility or sensitivity to environmental influences with about 30% of children being generally more affected by both negative and positive exposures. Heightened sensitivity to the environment is, at least partially, the reflection of a relatively stable and biologically-based temperament trait of sensitivity that can be measured with questionnaires or through behaviour observation. Children that score high on this trait are characterised by higher sensory sensitivity and deeper processing of perceived environmental influences. In this symposium we report several recent advances in research on highly sensitive children across different cultural settings with a particular focus on measurement.
The first paper introduces a new measure of sensitivity, the Highly Sensitive Child Interview, in a sample of Swiss primary school children. The interview overcomes limitations inherent to questionnaires and represents a novel objective way to assess sensitivity in middle childhood. The second paper presents a new observational assessment of sensitivity for infants, developed in a sample of three months old Italian babies. The new observational assessment advances the field by providing a measure that can be used to assess sensitivity shortly after birth. The third paper focuses on experimentally assessed sensitivity in a sample of Chinese adolescents in order to test whether effects of environmental unpredictability on adolescent functioning are moderated by sensitivity. Finally, the fourth paper features a large sample of Syrian refugee children aged 8-18 years and investigates associations between self-reported, physiological and genetic markers of sensitivity.

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Chair

• Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London

Individual Presentations

• Development and Evaluation of the Highly Sensitive Child Interview - Presenting Author: Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London; Francesca Lionetti, G. d’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara and Queen Mary University of London; Jenni Elise kahkonen, Queen Mary University of London

• Observational Assessment of Environmental Sensitivity in Infancy - Presenting Author: Alessandra Sperati, University G. d'Annunzio; 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

• Testing Different Sources of Environmental Unpredictability on Adolescent Dunctioning: The Role of Temperament - Presenting Author: Zhi Li, Peking University; Melissa L Sturge-Apple, University of Rochester; Cory Platts, University of Rochester; Patrick Davies, University of Rochester

• Markers of Environmental Sensitivity in Syrian Refugee Children across Multiple Levels of Analysis - Presenting Author: Andrew May, University G. d’Annunzio Chieti-Pescara; Francesca Lionetti, G. d’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara and Queen Mary University of London; Demelza Smeeth, Queen Mary University of London; Elie Karam, Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy and Applied Care