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Updated: May 15, 2025
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Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
Published on: February 11, 2017
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Environmental sensitivity in children is associated with emotion recognition
Jenni Elise Kähkönen1, Francesca Lionetti2, Michael Pluess1
1Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London.
Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
|April 7, 2025
Summary
Highly sensitive children show better emotion recognition and social competence when teachers report their sensitivity. This suggests high sensitivity may benefit social skills in children.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Neuroscience
Background:
- Emotion recognition is crucial for social competence in children.
- Environmental sensitivity, the trait of perceiving and processing stimuli deeply, is linked to emotion recognition in adults.
- This link has not been explored in highly sensitive children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between environmental sensitivity, emotion recognition, and social competence in children.
- To test the hypothesis that highly sensitive children outperform low sensitive children in emotion recognition and social competence.
Main Methods:
- Ninety-seven 7- to 9-year-old children completed the child version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test.
- Teachers rated children's sensitivity and social competence using the Highly Sensitive Child in School scale.
- Children also completed the Highly Sensitive Child scale.
Main Results:
- Teacher-reported sensitivity significantly predicted better performance on the emotion recognition task and higher social competence.
- Child-reported sensitivity did not correlate with emotion recognition abilities.
- Teacher-reported overstimulation was negatively associated with social competence.
Conclusions:
- Teacher-reported environmental sensitivity is linked to enhanced emotion recognition and social competence in children.
- Findings support theories on environmental sensitivity and suggest potential advantages of high sensitivity for social skills.
- Replication in diverse samples is needed to confirm these results.
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