Sensory processing sensitivity and culturally modified resilience education: Differential susceptibility in Japanese adolescents

Abstract

This study investigated the efficacy of a culturally modified resilience education program on Japanese adolescents’ well-being from a differential susceptibility perspective. First, a culturally modified resilience education intervention was developed by employing the SPARK resilience program and implemented with 407 Japanese high school students in Tokyo (age = 15–16, M = 192, F = 215). To test intervention efficacy, students’ level of resilience, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and depression were measured pre-, post-, and three months after intervention. Additionally, sensory processing sensitivity, using the Japanese version of the Highly Sensitive Child Scale for Adolescence, was measured as an index of individual sensitivity. Analysis of variance was used to examine the baseline differences and interaction effects of students’ gender and level of sensory processing sensitivity. Latent growth curve models were used to assess the overall effects of the intervention and change over time. Results indicated that the intervention was effective in enhancing students’ overall self-efficacy; and that highly sensitive students, who scored significantly lower in well-being than their counterparts at baseline, responded more positively to the intervention, and had a greater reduction in depression and promotion of self-esteem. These findings provided unique evidence in line with the differential susceptibility perspective and useful implications to develop personalized treatment interventions for adolescents in different cultural contexts.

Effective Coping Strategies Employed by University Students in Three Sensitivity Groups: A Quantitative Text Analysis

“…This study performed a series of quantitative text analyses and provided findings regarding effective coping strategies for better mental health in low-, medium-, and high-SPS university students. The results support the existing evidence that individual differences in SPS should be considered when constructing a school-based and universally designed intervention program (Kibe et al, 2020;Pluess & Boniwell, 2015;Yano et al, 2020a). In practice or in applied research, programs considering the characteristics of each sensitivity group could more effectively improve mental health than those that are universally designed, which are traditionally conducted.…”

“…In applied work, SPS has been shown to moderate the beneficial effects of psychological intervention programs. For instance, highly sensitive adolescents had lower depressive tendencies (Pluess & Boniwell, 2015) or higher self-esteem (Kibe, Suzuki, Hirano, & Boniwell, 2020) than others after a school-based resilience program. Similarly, psychoeducational or physical exercise (i.e., yoga) programs implemented in educational institutions may have more beneficial effects for high-SPS students than low-SPS students, such as infrequent maladaptive behavior (Nocentini, Menesini, & Pluess, 2018) or a low level of anxiety (Amemiya et al, 2020).…”

Environmental Sensitivity in Adults: Psychometric Properties of the Japanese Version of the Highly Sensitive Person Scale 10-Item Version

“…In contrast, individuals with low sensitivity are less likely to be affected by positive experiences (i.e., Vantage Resistance). Indeed, several studies examining the effects of positive psychological interventions have demonstrated that highly sensitive individuals benefited more from interventions than low-sensitivity individuals (Kibe et al, 2020;Nocentini et al, 2018;Pluess & Boniwell, 2015). If our newly created HSP-J10 is a validated measure to assess sensitivity, it is expected to moderate the relationship between positive experiences and their consequences, as in previous works.…”

“…More recently, it has been confirmed that Environmental Sensitivity also moderates the positive effects of a supportive environment (e.g., Iimura & Kibe, 2020;Kibe et al, 2020;Nocentini et al, 2018;Pluess & Boniwell, 2015). For example, highly sensitive children are more likely to benefit (e.g., lower depression and anxiety) from school-based positive psychological interventions (e.g., resilience training and bullying prevention interventions), which is called Vantage Sensitivity.…”

Relationship between Sensory Processing Sensitivity and Mental Health

“…As for the country of origin, three of the studies were conducted in Japan [10,12,17], two in United States [9,15], and other two in United Kingdom [14,19]. One article was carried out in each of the following countries: Malaysia, Sweden, Denmark, Iran, Israel and China [11,13,16,18,20,21].…”