2-090 - The Highly Sensitive Child Scale: A New Measure of Differential Susceptibility to Environmental Influences

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

According to the Differential Susceptibility framework (Belsky & Pluess, 20009) children differ in their susceptibility to environmental influences, with some more sensitive than others. Although many studies support this assumption most of them use more or less proximal markers of environmental sensitivity (e.g., infant temperament, genetic variants etc.). The only specific self-report measure of environmental sensitivity is the Highly Sensitive Person scale (Aron & Aron, 1997), which has been developed for the use with adults. In the current symposium we present a new questionnaire, the Highly Sensitive Child (HSC) scale, which is an adaptation of the adult scale, as a promising new measure of differential susceptibility/environmental sensitivity in children and adolescents.
All four papers included in this symposium feature large samples of children and adolescents with data on the HSC scale. The first two papers provide detailed data on the development and psychometric properties of the scale, including confirmatory factor analyses, associations with established temperament and personality traits, as well as latent class analyses to test for the existence of sensitivity groups in multiple samples from the UK. The third and fourth paper report empirical evidences that HSC moderates the effects of environmental factors on behavioural outcomes. The former tests whether HSC moderates the response to an anti-bullying intervention program in Italy, and the latter investigates the influence of home environments on reoffending behaviours in a juvenile offending population in the USA. Both studies confirm empirically that HSC reflects environmental sensitivity.

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Chairs

• Francesca Lionetti, Queen Mary University of London

• Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London

Individual Presentations

• Is Environmental Sensitivity Measured with the Highly Sensitive Child Scale a One-dimensional Construct? - Presenting Author: Francesca Lionetti, Queen Mary University of London; Elham Assary, Queen Mary, University of London; Kathryn Lester, University of Sussex; Eva Krapohl, King’s College London; Arthur Aron, Stony Brook University; Elaine N. Aron, Stony Brook University; Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London

• Low, Medium and High Sensitive Children: Evidence for Distinct Sensitivity Groups - Presenting Author: Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London; Elham Assary, Queen Mary, University of London; Francesca Lionetti, Queen Mary University of London; Kathryn Lester, University of Sussex; Eva Krapohl, King’s College London; Arthur Aron, Stony Brook University; Elaine N. Aron, Stony Brook University

• Environmental Sensitivity Moderates the Effects of an Anti-bullying Intervention - Presenting Author: Annalaura Nocentini, University of Florence; Ersilia Menesini, University of Florence; Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London

• Environmental Sensitivity Among Juvenile Offenders: Do Some Offenders Benefit from a Positive Home Environment More than Others? - Presenting Author: Sachiko Donley, University of California, Irvine; Adam Fine, University of California, Irvine; Cortney Simmons, University of California, Irvine; Elizabeth Cauffman, University of California, Irvine; Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London