Individual differences in environmental sensitivity at physiological and phenotypic level: Two sides of the same coin?

Weyn, Sofie; Leeuwen, Karla Van; Pluess, Michael; Goossens, Luc; Claes, Stephan; Bosmans, Guy; Noortgate, Wim Van den; Lutin, Erika; Bröhl, Anne Sophie; Chubar, Viktoria; Geukens, Flore; Bijttebier, Patricia

doi:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.02.010

Cited by 19 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 52 publications

(107 reference statements)

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“…In young adults, high environmental sensitivity is associated with greater perceived stress, but not differences in physiological measures of arousal (Benham, 2006 ; Weyn et al., 2022 ). One explanation for this is that highly sensitive individuals may be more aware of their own physiological responses and may notice minor sensations that less sensitive individuals would not (Benham, 2006 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multivariate genetic analysis of anxiety sensitivity, environmental sensitivity and reported life events in adolescents

Peel

Oginni

Assary

et al. 2022

Child Psychology Psychiatry

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Background: Despite being considered a measure of environmental risk, reported life events are partly heritable. One mechanism that may contribute to this heritability is genetic influences on sensitivity, relating to how individuals process and interpret internal and external signals. The aim of this study was to explore the genetic and environmental overlap between self-reported life events and measures of sensitivity. Methods: At age 17, 2,939 individuals from the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) completed measures of anxiety sensitivity (Children's Anxiety Sensitivity Index), environmental sensitivity (Highly Sensitive Child Scale) and reported their experience of 20 recent life events. Using multivariate Cholesky decomposition models, we investigated the shared genetic and environmental influences on the associations between these measures of sensitivity and the number of reported life events, as well as both negative and positive ratings of life events. Results: The majority of the associations between anxiety sensitivity, environmental sensitivity and reported life events were explained by shared genetic influences (60%-75%), with the remainder explained by nonshared environmental influences (25%-40%). Environmental sensitivity showed comparable genetic correlations with both negative and positive ratings of life events (r A = .21 and .15), anxiety sensitivity only showed a significant genetic correlation with negative ratings of life events (r A = .33). Approximately 10% of the genetic influences on reported life events were accounted for by influences shared with anxiety sensitivity and environmental sensitivity. Conclusion: Differences in how individuals process the contextual aspects of the environment or interpret their own physical and emotional response to environmental stimuli may be one mechanism through which genetic liability influences the subjective experience of life events.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multivariate genetic analysis of anxiety sensitivity, environmental sensitivity and reported life events in adolescents

Peel

Oginni

Assary

et al. 2022

Child Psychology Psychiatry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Because measuring sensitivity may also involve capturing emotional reactivity to stimuli, it is possible that the act of simply responding to the HSP-27 items could have elicited emotional reactivity intrinsic to respondents who scored high in sensory processing sensitivity and/or neuroticism (Aron et al, 2012 ). Future research could employ advanced techniques to extract psychophysiological reactions using biological measures (e.g., fMRI scanning of brain activations, Aron et al, 2010 , Jagiellowicz et al, 2011 ; Schaefer et al, 2022 ; physiological stress responses, Weyn et al, 2022 ) and behavioral observations (Lionetti, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Must one take the bitter with the sweet? Sensory processing sensitivity and factors associated with resilience among artistically inclined individuals

Chou

2023

Curr Psychol

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Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), linked with a penchant for the arts and creativity, exerts its bivalent influences, contingent on context, on individuals’ health-related outcomes. But little is known about how it interacts with creative self-concept (CSC). Focusing on the role of SPS, this study identified risk and protective factors of resilience among artistically inclined individuals from middle to later life during the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) restriction period and examined the interaction effect between SPS and CSC on depression. Two stages of analyses were pursued. Stage 1 identified factors associated with resilience by using regression and profile analyses on data from 224 anonymized respondents from middle to third age ( M age = 54.08, SD = 10.08, range = 40–84) with diverse disciplinary backgrounds in visual arts. Stage 2 examined the influence of SPS on the relationship between CSC and depression. SPS, lack of peer support of shared interests in the arts, and depression emerged as risk factors associated with lower levels of resilience. The profiles of SPS components among the relatively high and low resilience groups were found to be divergent. The effects of CSC on depression were contingent upon SPS, controlling for neuroticism. The findings call for future research to examine the differential correlational patterns among the SPS components and neuroticism across different populations. The risk/protective factors and patterns found in this study provide directions for research in SPS and applied work to support artistically inclined individuals from middle to later life.

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“…Internal consistency 1 was sufficient for caregiver reports (ω = .77) but somewhat low for (pre)adolescent self-reports (ω = .53). Despite this, we used both measures because self-report provides a more direct assessment of sensitivity-related thoughts and feelings for (pre)adolescents (Weyn, Bijttebier, et al, 2022). In addition, researchers have suggested that “measures can demonstrate meaningful and consistent predictive validity despite low reliability” (McNulty et al, 2019, p. 991).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are (pre)adolescents differentially susceptible to experimentally manipulated peer acceptance and rejection? A vignette-based experiment

Liu,

van Dijk,

Deković

et al. 2023

International Journal of Behavioral Development

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The differential susceptibility model proposes that some children are more susceptible to both positive and negative peer relationships than others. However, experimental evidence supporting such a proposition is relatively scarce. The current experiment aimed to help address this gap, investigating whether Chinese (pre)adolescents who have higher levels of general sensitivity to the environment (i.e., higher levels of sensory processing sensitivity [SPS]) would be more strongly affected by peer acceptance and rejection. (Pre)adolescents aged 8.75–15.17 ( N = 1,207, Mage = 11.19 years, 59.7% boys) randomly received four hypothetical vignettes describing either peer acceptance or peer rejection. Before and after this manipulation, they reported on their positive and negative mood. We assessed (pre)adolescents’ SPS using (pre)adolescent self-reports, as well as caregiver reports for a subset of (pre)adolescents ( n = 480). Results supported differential susceptibility to peer rejection and acceptance for self-reported SPS, but not caregiver-reported SPS. (Pre)adolescents with higher levels of self-reported SPS not only had stronger increases in positive mood upon peer acceptance (susceptible “for better”; β = .09, p = .001) but also stronger increases in negative mood upon peer rejection (susceptible “for worse”; β = .09, p = .023). These findings illustrate the short-term dynamics that may underlie differences in children’s long-term susceptibility to acceptance or rejection by peers.

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Individual differences in environmental sensitivity at physiological and phenotypic level: Two sides of the same coin?

Cited by 19 publications

References 52 publications

A multivariate genetic analysis of anxiety sensitivity, environmental sensitivity and reported life events in adolescents

A multivariate genetic analysis of anxiety sensitivity, environmental sensitivity and reported life events in adolescents

Must one take the bitter with the sweet? Sensory processing sensitivity and factors associated with resilience among artistically inclined individuals

Are (pre)adolescents differentially susceptible to experimentally manipulated peer acceptance and rejection? A vignette-based experiment

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