Poster #212 - Environmental Sensitivity in relation to children’s social-emotional wellbeing and functioning at school.

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Children differ in their degree of Environmental Sensitivity, the ability to perceive and process positive and negative environmental stimuli. A possible marker for Environmental Sensitivity is Sensory Processing Sensitivity which is conceptualized as a personality trait that is associated with (a) greater awareness of nuances or subtleties in the environment, (b) deeper cognitive processing of external stimuli, (c) inhibition of behavior, and (d) higher emotional and physiological reactivity (Aron & Aron, 1997). Sensory Processing Sensitivity in children can be measured with the ‘Highly Sensitive Child’ scale (HSC, Pluess et al., 2018) and captures three underlying dimensions: Ease of Excitation (i.e., being easily overwhelmed), Low Sensory Threshold (i.e., unpleasant feelings caused by strong sensory stimuli), and Aesthetic Sensitivity (i.e., being aware of subtleties in the environment). Most research so far has been conducted in adults and has focused on the associations between Environmental Sensitivity and psychopathology. In the current study we will focus on the relation between Environmental Sensitivity and children’s social-emotional wellbeing and functioning at school (i.e., school engagement, affection, and burnout). Methods: Data were collected at primary and secondary schools in The Netherlands. In total, 151 children, 540 mothers, and 376 teachers completed questionnaires about school functioning and social-emotional wellbeing, resulting in data of 734 unique children (Mage =10.15, SDage= 2.26, 48.2% female). Zero-order correlations, partial correlations, and regression analysis were conducted. Results: Results indicated that children high in Sensory Processing Sensitivity, scored higher on emotional problems, hyperactivity/attentional problems, problems with peers, depressive symptoms, somatic complaints, emotional and behavioral disaffection and disengagement toward school, exhaustion at school, cynism toward the meaning of school, and feelings of inadequacy at school. However, when running analyses with the three subscales of the HSC scale, we found that these relations could be primarily explained by Ease of Excitation, whereas having a Low Sensory Threshold was associated with less behavioral problems, hyperactivity/attentional problems, and with less school burnout, disengagement, and disaffection. Moreover, having a higher Aesthetic Sensitivity was associated with more prosocial behaviors and with more emotional engagement at school. Discussion: Children who are easily overwhelmed seem to function less well at school (i.e., having more emotional, social, behavioral, and motivational problems) than children who are not easily overwhelmed, whereas children with a lower sensory threshold and those who are more sensitive to aesthetic aspects of the environment (e.g., details, fine scents) seem to function better than less sensitive children. Therefore, when studying children’s social-emotional wellbeing and functioning at school, it is important to be aware of individual differences in different dimensions of sensitivity to environmental contexts.

Authors

• Sofie Weyn, KU Leuven
  Presenting Author

• Karla Van Leeuwen, KU Leuven
  Non-Presenting Author

• Michael Pluess, Queen Mary University of London
  Non-Presenting Author

• Patricia Bijttebier, KU Leuven
  Non-Presenting Author