Evidence for Studying Sensitivity with American Young Adult Samples

Sensory processing sensitivity (sensitivity) involves the ways people differ in being attentive and responsive to bodily, social, and environmental cues. We aimed to build evidence regarding the validity of a more recent sensory measure, focusing on college samples. We recruited three central US college samples (total n = 1,271; M age = 18.89 years; 62.2% cisgender women) and tested the structural validity of the six-dimension Sensory Processing Sensitivity Scale (SPSQ; De Gucht et al., 2022); tested evidence of congruent validity of sensitivity subscales with other individual differences (i.e., temperament, Big Five traits); and tested evidence of discriminant validity between sensitivity and other individual differences. There was support for the original six-factor structure of the SPSQ. Each subscale of sensitivity was positively correlated with multiple measures of temperament and traits; correlations were often small-to-medium in size. Final tests considering how temperament, traits, and sensitivity were simultaneously related to differences in measures of positive character showed that multiple dimensions of sensitivity were uniquely related to endorsements of character. We discuss the ways findings reinforce the relevance of sensitivity measures and the value of considering sensitivity as distinct yet complementary to other longstanding measures of individual differences.