Sensitivity, but to which environment? Individual differences in sensitivity to parents and peers show domain‐specific patterns and a negative genetic correlation

Abstract

The idea that individuals differ in their sensitivity to the environment's effects is a cornerstone of developmental science. It has been demonstrated repeatedly, for different kinds of stressors, outcomes, and sensitivity markers. However, almost no empirical work was done to examine whether environmental sensitivity is domain-general (i.e., the same individuals are sensitive to different environmental contexts) or domainspecific (i.e., different individuals are sensitive to different environmental contexts), despite its importance to understanding human development, learning, and behavior.To address this question, phenotypic sensitivity to parents and to peers were compared in 1313 11-year-old Israeli adolescent twins. We found that, (1) our phenotypic markers indeed moderate environmental influences, with a discriminant predictive utility,(2) adolescents who are sensitive to their parents are not necessarily sensitive to their peers, and (3) sensitivity to parents and sensitivity to peers have different etiologies and show a negative genetic correlation, indicating that adolescents carrying genetic markers for sensitivity to parents are less likely to carry genetic markers for sensitivity to peers. These findings suggest that environmental sensitivity shows domain-specific patterns, as different individuals can be sensitive to different environments. We discuss the theoretical, empirical, and practical implications of domain-specificity of environmental sensitivity.

No Correlation Between 2D:4D Ratio and Environmental Sensitivity as a Personality Trait in Young Adults

“…The second hypothesis is the domain-specific hypothesis of plasticity factor, which states that in a given environment (e.g., quality of nurture), factor "A" become a plasticity factor, but factor "B" does not. Underpinning the assertion of this hypothesis is the recent finding that there is growing support for the view that susceptibility to positive and negative environmental influences does not function in all environments (i.e., domain-general) but only in specific environments (i.e., domain-specific) (Belsky et al, 2022;Hentges et al, 2023;Markovitch et al, 2023;. The findings and theories that explain these hypotheses may be useful for further understanding individual differences in human developmental plasticity.…”

Individual differences in sensitivity to positive home environment among children “at risk” for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A review

“…However, since each study focused on one or a small number of environmental factors (as well as susceptibility factors), the question of whether sensitive children are generally more sensitive to all environmental input (i.e., domaingenerality) or only to specific environmental input (i.e., domain-specificity) remains open. This important question has been repeatedly raised in the literature (27,34,145) but has not been empirically tested until recently (146)(147)(148)(149). Belsky et al (146) found that different children were sensitive to the different environmental attributes of the childcare effect.…”