Are Highly Sensitive Individuals at Risk for Depression Across Different Developmental Stages? Longitudinal Perspectives on the Role of Environmental Sensitivity
Chair(s): Laura Gorla (Duke University, United States of America)
Discussant(s): Francesca Lionetti (University of Pavia, Italy)
Research suggests that environmental sensitivity is a quite stable trait that influences the perception, processing, and expression of emotional responses to environmental stimuli and experiences. As highly sensitive individuals can suffer more from negative environments but also benefit more from supportive ones, mixed results have been highlighted when exploring the relationship between environmental sensitivity and depression. In the current symposium, we will present three longitudinal studies extending this research line and examining the role of environmental sensitivity on depression from childhood to adulthood.
Relying on a large longitudinal dataset of Finnish students, the first paper investigates the role of environmental sensitivity on depression, anxiety, and self-esteem following cyberbullying victimization. The authors found evidence that both cyberbullying and offline bullying had adverse effects on self-esteem, with highly sensitive individuals experiencing increased anxiety only after cyberbullying victimization.
The second paper uses a multicultural sample to examine whether environmental sensitivity, interacting with positive parenting and parental psychological control, significantly predicts trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems from age 8 to 18. While highly sensitive individuals reported high externalizing problems in childhood and internalizing problems during adolescence, no interaction effects of environmental sensitivity, positive parenting, and parental psychological control emerged.
Finally, following a sample of mothers both before and after pregnancy longitudinally, the third paper examines the influence of sensitivity and social support on maternal depression and the relation between maternal depression and infants’ emotional adjustment. The authors discovered that highly sensitive mothers suffered from depression over the perinatal period, an aspect linked to increased child reactivity to stimuli.
All three studies used strong methodology and longitudinal measures. Together, they emphasize the complex role of sensitivity in predicting mental health trajectories in different developmental stages.
Presentations of the Symposium
Can the consequences of cyberbullying victimization differ based on children’s environmental sensitivity? A cross-lagged panel model longitudinal study
Ebru Ozbek1, Simona Carla Silvia Caravita1, Christina Salmivalli2
1Norwegian Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioral Research in Education, University of Stavanger, Norway, 2INVEST Flagship, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
Environmental sensitivity is one of the most prominent factors associated with internalizing problems in children (Pluess, 2015). In studies on bullying, it has also been found to be associated with the level of benefits from intervention programs (Nocentini et al., 2018). How sensitivity can affect the development of internalizing problems in cyberbullying situations, however, is still relatively unknown. In this study, we investigated the role of environmental sensitivity in developing depressive symptoms, anxiety, and self-esteem following cyberbullying victimization. From fall 2020 to spring 2021, 3639 Finnish students (grades 4-9; Mage = 13.06, SD = 1.70, 46.7% male) answered self-report measures across three time points. Participants reported their depression and anxiety symptoms, self-esteem, offline bullying victimization, and cyberbullying victimization in the three times and their sensitivity in time 1. We estimated separate cross-lagged models to investigate the associations of cyberbullying victimization with depressive symptoms, anxiety, and self-esteem of students controlling for offline bullying victimization. Moderation effects by sensitivity were examined for each model separately. In the main effect models cyberbullying victimization and offline bullying victimization negatively affected children’s self-esteem. Depressive symptoms increased for children who experienced cyberbullying victimization, not traditional bullying victimization. In the three interaction models the interaction of sensitivity with cyberbullying victimization significantly predicted only the increase of anxiety in time 3. Our findings indicate that children’s sensitivity can affect the development of adverse outcomes following cyberbullying victimization. The findings provide important insights for policy implementations and future research.
Effects of Environmental Sensitivity, Positive Parenting, and Psychological Control on Internalizing and Externalizing Problems: A Longitudinal Perspective from Eight Countries
Laura Gorla1, Francesca Lionetti2, Jennifer Lansford1, Andrew William Rothenberg1
1Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University, USA, 2Department of Brain and Behavioural Studies, University of Pavia, Italy
Environmental factors, such as environmental sensitivity and parenting, widely influence mental health difficulties during childhood and adolescence. Still, longitudinal research about the interaction between these factors in predicting mental health difficulties in a multicultural sample is missing. This study aims to fill this gap by examining whether environmental sensitivity predicts internalizing and externalizing trajectories from childhood to adolescence, both alone and interacting with positive parenting and psychological control in eight countries. We hypothesized that highly sensitive adolescents, especially in interaction with low positive parenting and high psychological control, would have reported higher internalizing and externalizing problems over time.
The current study’s sample comprises 879 adolescents (53% females) interviewed longitudinally (8-18 years old) in Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. Participants completed the Child Behavior Checklist, the Highly Sensitive Person Scale, the Positive Parenting Scale, and the Psychological Control and Autonomy Granting Scale.
We estimated a series of latent growth curve models and found that environmental sensitivity significantly predicted the intercept of externalizing problems (B = .61, SE = .30, p = .044) and the linear slope of internalizing problems (B = .50, SE = .22, p = .026). Adolescents with higher environmental sensitivity reported more externalizing behaviors when they were 8 years old and experienced a constant increase in internalizing problems each year. We also found that positive parenting and psychological control were related to lower and higher internalizing and externalizing problems, representing protective and risk factors for mental health, respectively. Nevertheless, no interaction effects between environmental sensitivity and examined parenting dimensions and cultural effects were discovered.
The current study extends knowledge about longitudinal trajectories of internalizing and externalizing problems by focusing on the effects of environmental sensitivity and its interaction with parenting dimensions in a multicultural and diverse sample.
The impact of Maternal Depression during the Perinatal Period on Infant Emotional Adjustment and the contributing role of Sensory Processing Sensitivity and Social Support
Melba Emilia Persico1, Alessandra Sperati2, Ilenia Passaquindici2, Odette Nardozza1, Mirco Fasolo1, Maria Spinelli1
1Department of Psychology, University G. d’Annunzio, Chieti-Pescara, 2Department of Neurosciences, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara
The transition to motherhood is a challenging period, with some women more vulnerable to depression. Given the relevant impact of depression on maternal well-being and child socio-emotional development, it is important to explore how depression evolves over time and which factors may contribute to it. However, research findings are mixed. This longitudinal study examined maternal depression during the perinatal period in a not-clinical sample, focusing on the influence of Sensory Processing Sensitivity (SPS) and partner support across pregnancy, and at three, six, and nine months postpartum. We also explored how prenatal depression affects infants’ early emotional adjustment, specifically their negative affect.
The study involved 88 mothers (mean age = 35.03 years, SD = 4.92) who completed online questionnaires during pregnancy and at three, six, and nine months postpartum. Depression was measured using the Edinburgh Perinatal Depression Scale, partner support was assessed with an ad-hoc scale, and SPS was evaluated using the Highly Sensitive Person Scale. At three months postpartum, infants' negative affect was assessed with the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire. Latent growth models and multivariate regression analyses were conducted.
Maternal depression decreased over the perinatal period, with the highest symptoms between pregnancy and three months postpartum. While high SPS predicted greater depressive symptoms at all time points, partner support was associated with lower depressive symptoms during pregnancy (β = -0.42, p < 0.01) and at six months postpartum (β = -0.32, p = 0.03). Prenatal depression was linked to increased child reactivity to stimuli, as indicated by the temperament dimension of fear (β = 0.46, p = 0.001). These findings emphasize the importance of targeted support for mothers with high SPS and low partner support to improve both maternal mental health and infant emotional development.
