Measuring Environmental Sensitivity in Educational Contexts: A Validation Study With German-Speaking Students

Abstract

Sensory-Processing Sensitivity (SPS), as part of the general theory on Environmental Sensitivity (Pluess, 2015), is a temperamental individual difference variable, referring to sensitive perception and processing of as well as reflection upon environmental stimuli. For its measurement, Aron and Aron (1997) developed the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSP Scale) for application with adults. However, despite some adaption into German (Konrad & Herzberg, 2017) and a first English version for children , no suitable measures of SPS for children exist in German. The presented two studies aimed at developing and validating a short, 10-item German version of the scale, which can be administered efficiently in educational field studies with German-speaking secondary school students. The factorial structure, its relationship with other personality traits (i.e., the Big Five; McCrae & Costa, 1990) and exploratory analyses on relationships with additional school-related variables were revealed using data from two independent student samples (N = 301 German academic-track secondary school students and N = 460 German vocational track secondary school students). Relations to existing research, practical implications for the educational context, and limitations of the studies are discussed.

Highly sensitive adolescent benefits in positive school transitions: Evidence for vantage sensitivity in Japanese high-schoolers.

“…Furthermore, results indicate that the empirical evidence of vantage sensitivity , the bright side of the DST (Pluess & Belsky, 2013), is a function of individual SPS. As such, concurrent with growing research attention, HSP and HSCS are now translated into multiple languages, such as Dutch (Weyn et al, 2019), Italian (Nocentini, Menesini, Lionetti, & Pluess, 2017), German (Konrad & Herzberg, 2019; Tillmann, El Matany, & Duttweiler, 2018), Turkish (Şengül-İnal & Sümer, 2017), and Japanese (Kibe & Hirano, 2019). However, evidence from multicultural contexts is yet to fortify the theoretical underpinning of HSP and HSCS.…”

Sensory Processing Sensitivity in the Context of Environmental Sensitivity: A Critical Review and Development of Research Agenda

“…The HSP/HSC scales have been translated into several languages. Dutch (Weyn et al, under review), Italian (Nocentini, Menesini, Lionetti, & Pluess, 2017), German (Konrad & Herzberg, 2017;Tillmann, El Matany, & Duttweiler, 2018), Turkish (Şengül-İnal & Sümer, 2017), Japanese (Kibe, Suzuki, & Hirano, 2018) and Icelandic (Þórarinsdóttir, 2018) versions are available, and the HSC partial measurement invariance has been confirmed across age, gender, and country based on Dutch and UK versions (Weyn et al, under review). Both HSC and HSP scores tend to be normally distributed in the population (Booth et al, 2015;Pluess et al, 2017), although some authors have pointed out a slight trend towards a bimodal distribution (Aron et al, 2012;Lionetti et al, 2018).…”

The Highly Sensitive Child as a challenge for education – introduction to the concept

“…The results of the research conducted indicate, among other findings, the negative relationship between SPS and school-related effectiveness or student ratings. Despite some critical remarks regarding methodological problems, the current findings greatly enrich the existing literature concerning SPS in the school context and have important implications, especially in the current debate, about the need for an education based on the requirements of individual students (Tillmann 2016;Tillmann et al 2018). Achermann (2013, in: Tillmann 2016 examined how highly sensitive adults perceive their time spent at school.…”