The German version of the highly sensitive child scale: Psychometric properties and identification of sensitivity groups.

IF 2.6 3区心理学 Q2 PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Current Psychology Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-23 DOI:10.1007/s12144-026-09244-w

Susanne Wehrli, Jana Hochreuter, David Buttelmann, Francesca Lionetti, Michael Pluess, Niamh Oeri, Helen Koechlin

{"title":"The German version of the highly sensitive child scale: Psychometric properties and identification of sensitivity groups.","authors":"Susanne Wehrli, Jana Hochreuter, David Buttelmann, Francesca Lionetti, Michael Pluess, Niamh Oeri, Helen Koechlin","doi":"10.1007/s12144-026-09244-w","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Individuals differ in their sensitivity to external stimuli. The Highly Sensitive Child (HSC) scale can be used to measure sensitivity in children and adolescents. However, the German version has yet to be validated. We examined the psychometric properties of the German self- and the parent report version of the HSC. Measurement invariance (MI) across age groups was tested for the parent report version and latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify sensitivity groups. Pooled data from German-speaking countries (N= 250 self-reports; N= 3657 parent reports) was included. The factor structure was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), reliability was quantified by Cronbach's alpha (α) and MI was assessed by multigroup CFA using the optimal model. An exploratory analysis was carried out across age groups. CFA indicated the bifactorial model as the best fit for the HSC. Reliability of the total score across age groups was acceptable, but the MI was not. In the LPA, we found two sensitivity classes for early, middle childhood, and adolescent parent-reports, and four groups for self-report. The German version of the HSC seems to be a valid measurement of sensitivity. However, future research should examine age differences across childhood more closely.Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-026-09244-w.","PeriodicalId":48075,"journal":{"name":"Current Psychology","volume":"45 7","pages":"738"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13009142/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Current Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-026-09244-w","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/3/23 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Individuals differ in their sensitivity to external stimuli. The Highly Sensitive Child (HSC) scale can be used to measure sensitivity in children and adolescents. However, the German version has yet to be validated. We examined the psychometric properties of the German self- and the parent report version of the HSC. Measurement invariance (MI) across age groups was tested for the parent report version and latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify sensitivity groups. Pooled data from German-speaking countries (N= 250 self-reports; N= 3657 parent reports) was included. The factor structure was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), reliability was quantified by Cronbach's alpha (α) and MI was assessed by multigroup CFA using the optimal model. An exploratory analysis was carried out across age groups. CFA indicated the bifactorial model as the best fit for the HSC. Reliability of the total score across age groups was acceptable, but the MI was not. In the LPA, we found two sensitivity classes for early, middle childhood, and adolescent parent-reports, and four groups for self-report. The German version of the HSC seems to be a valid measurement of sensitivity. However, future research should examine age differences across childhood more closely.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-026-09244-w.

Abstract Image

查看原文本刊更多论文

德国版高敏感儿童量表：心理测量特性和敏感群体的识别。

个体对外部刺激的敏感度不同。高敏感儿童（HSC）量表可用于测量儿童和青少年的敏感性。然而，德国的版本还有待验证。我们检查了德国人自我和父母报告版本的HSC的心理测量特性。对父母报告版本进行了跨年龄组的测量不变性（MI）测试，并使用潜在剖面分析（LPA）来确定敏感组。纳入了来自德语国家的汇总数据（N= 250份自我报告；N= 3657份父母报告）。采用验证性因子分析（confirmatory factor analysis， CFA）评估因子结构，采用Cronbach's alpha （α）量化信度，采用最优模型的多组CFA评估MI。对各年龄组进行了探索性分析。CFA表明双因子模型最适合HSC。各年龄组总分的可靠性是可以接受的，但MI不是。在LPA中，我们发现了早期、中期和青少年父母报告的两个敏感性类别，以及自我报告的四个敏感性类别。德国版本的HSC似乎是一种有效的灵敏度测量方法。然而，未来的研究应该更仔细地检查儿童时期的年龄差异。补充信息：在线版本包含补充资料，下载地址为10.1007/s12144-026-09244-w。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Current Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-

CiteScore

4.60

自引率

10.70%

发文量

1412

期刊介绍： Current Psychology is an international forum for rapid dissemination of peer-reviewed research at the cutting edge of psychology. It welcomes significant and rigorous empirical and theoretical contributions from all the major areas of psychology, including but not limited to: cognitive psychology and cognition, social, clinical, health, developmental, methodological, and personality psychology, neuropsychology, psychometrics, human factors, and educational psychology.