A detailed feasibility study on deducing the high-lying single-particle components (HLSPCs), which are important but used to be ignored, in the ground and low-lying excited states of even-even light nuclei is performed by analyses of (p, d) reactions with 12 C, 24 Mg, 28 Si, and 40 Ca targets at 51.93 MeV. Coupled reaction channels (CRC) analyses have been made for (p, d) transitions to the j-forbidden excited states in 11 C ( 5 2 − , 4.32 MeV), 23 Mg ( 7 2 + , 2.05 MeV), 27 Si ( 7 2 + , 2.16 MeV) and 39 Ca ( 9 2 − , 3.64 MeV), including the major allowed transition components together with direct components of HLSPCs. Spectroscopic amplitudes of the HLSPCs are deduced by fitting the angular distributions of the ground and the j-forbidden excited states simultaneously. The present analysis demonstrates for the first time that information about HLSPCs in atomic nuclei can be obtained from analysis of (p, d) reactions.