Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Highly Sensitive Child Scale Across Age Groups, Gender, and Informants

Abstract

Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) is theorized to be a fundamental trait capturing children’s general sensitivity to the environment. Yet, scientific knowledge of SPS is mostly based on findings from Western cultures and few translated measures exist to assess children’s SPS outside of Western countries. Therefore, we developed the Chinese Highly Sensitive Child (HSC) scale. In Study 1, we investigated the scale’s psychometric properties for both self-reports (N = 2925, Mage = 11.74 years, 43.3% girls) and caregiver reports (n = 460, Mchild age = 9.02 years, 44.0% girls). Findings replicated most psychometric properties found in international studies including: (a) a bifactor structure with one general sensitivity component and three specific components, (b) acceptable internal consistency of the total scale (although not for self-report of elementary school children, and not for the subscales), and (c) at least partial invariance across age groups, gender, and informants. In Study 2, we investigated convergent validity with related temperament and personality measures using self-reports from both elementary school children (n = 845, Mage = 9.71 years, 41.9% girls) and middle school children (n = 563, Mage = 13.17 years, 43.2% girls). Findings replicated bivariate associations found in Western studies: Ease of Excitation (EOE) was associated with more positive traits, whereas Aesthetic Sensitivity (AES) was associated with more negative traits, suggesting that EOE and AES may capture the “dark” and “bright side” of sensitivity, respectively. We hope that our studies help spur research on SPS across western and Chinese cultures.

Development and Validation of the SPSQ-26

“…Neuroticism is strongly related to the negative higher-order dimension of the SPSQ-SF, and with the Emotional and Physiological Reactivity subscale, while Openness correlates highly with the positive dimension, and more specifically with Aesthetic Sensitivity. The associations observed between Neuroticism and the negative facets of SPS, as well as between Openness and the positive facets of SPS, are similar to the findings presented by Liu and colleagues (2023) regarding the relationship between the subscales of the Highly Sensitive Child Scale and personality traits. These findings are considered by Liu et al to provide additional evidence supporting the notion that SPS encompasses both positive and negative aspects.…”

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

“…Data for this experiment were collected within a larger cross-sectional project (Liu, van Dijk, Lin, et al, 2023) and the second wave of a longitudinal study . Participants were 1,207 Chinese (pre)adolescents aged 8.75-15.17 (59.7% boys; M age = 11.19, SD = 1.39), recruited from a public middle school (i.e., Grades 7 and 8) and a public elementary school (i.e., Grades 4-6) in a city located in central China.…”

“…Sensory Processing Sensitivity. SPS was assessed using a validated Chinese version of the 12-item Highly Sensitive Child Scale (HSC; Liu, van Dijk, Lin, et al, 2023; for the original version, see Pluess et al, 2018). Items of this scale assess sensitivity to positive environmental influences (e.g., "I love nice smells," 4 items) and negative environmental influences (e.g., "I find it unpleasant to have a lot going on at once," 8 items).…”

“…We rephrased all items in the third person (i.e., "my child") for caregivers, who provided their responses online via a link shared by headteachers. Previous research demonstrated partial metric and partial scaler invariance between childand caregiver-reported SPS for this measure (Liu, van Dijk, Lin, et al, 2023). Items were rated on a 7-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 = not at all true to 7 = extremely true.…”

“…First, the internal consistency of the (pre)adolescent-reported SPS was somewhat low (i.e., ω = .53). Possibly, the 7-point Likert-type scale with only three anchors (1 = not at all, 4 = moderately, and 7 = extremely) was challenging for our sample, given that they had no prior experience filling out questionnaires, and were on average quite young (Liu, van Dijk, Lin, et al, 2023). Low reliability in our current sample may also be due to the homogeneous nature of the sample (recruited from a single city) and the limited variance of the total score (i.e., SD = 0.68) (Streiner, 2003).…”