ABSTRACT

Objectives: This study aims to adapt the short form of the 12-item Highly Sensitive Child (HSC) scale into Turkish and examine its factor structure, validity, and reliability in school-age children and adolescents.

Materials and Methods: A total of 139 children and adolescents aged 8-18 years were reached. A total of 126 participants completed the HSC scale. In line with the original version, one-factor, three-factor, and bifactor models were tested for the Turkish sample. “Negative emotionality”, “effortful control”, “perceptual sensitivity”, “behavioral inhibition”, “behavioral activation system”, “negative affect”, and “positive affect” scales were used to test validity.

Results: Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the one-factor structure was incompatible with the data, whereas the bifactor model was rejected. The three-factor model was considered the most compatible with the data. The reliability values of the scale were found to be acceptable, except for the aesthetic sensitivity (AES) subscale. Cronbach’s alpha values were 0.68 for the 5-item “ease of excitation” subscale, 0.43 for the 4-item AES subscale, 0.63 for the 3-item “low sensory threshold” subscale, and 0.64 for the 12-item HSC scale. The correlations of HSC and its subscales with similar temperament traits were in the expected directions pointing to the convergent validity of the scale. A significant percentage of variances in HSC and its subscales were not explained by the similar scales examined, indicating the discriminant validity of the scale.

Conclusion: This study found that the Turkish adaptation of the HSC scale was psychometrically adequate.