A comparative study of differences between parents and teachers in the evaluation of environmental sensitivity.

Introduction: The inextricable bond between humans and the environment underscores the pivotal significance of environmental sensitivity. This innate trait encompasses a wide array of ways individuals perceive, process, and react to various internal and external stimuli. The evaluation of this trait in children is generally conducted by parents. However, little is known about the concordance of the parents reports with those conducted by others, such as teachers. Children's behavior assessment is a current and relevant issue and finding out more positive results could make improvements in different contexts, such as home, clinics and schools. Objective: This study examines agreements and discrepancies between parents and teachers as raters of environmental sensitivity in Spanish children. Methods: Participants were 124 parents and eight teachers of youngsters between 3 and 10 years, who completed a paper survey providing information about parental and school variables and environmental sensitivity. Results: Parents and teachers mostly differ when rating environmental sensitivity, being parents the raters who score higher levels of this trait than teachers. Also, poor intra-class coefficients of reliability are found in both the items of HSCS, the dimensions and the general factor of environmental sensitivity among the informants. Conclusion: The present investigation provides novel findings related to inter-rater assessment on environmental sensitivity and how these different informants could affect in the report. This study also highlights the need of making and validating new and specific tools to assess environmental sensitivity for teachers.

The Influence of Emotional Regulation and Cognitive Flexibility on Sleep Habits in Spanish Children and Adolescents through the Lens of Parents.

BACKGROUND: Previous research studies have suggested the importance of studying the relationship between emotional regulation and sleep habits. Some investigations have especially focused on how emotional regulation could impact sleep habits in children and adolescents. Therefore, these researchers have stated there exists a two-way direction in this relationship. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyze the influence of emotional regulation on sleep habits in Spanish children and adolescents and the mediating role of anxiety in this relationship. METHOD: Participants were 953 Spanish parents who completed the assessment protocol according to their children and adolescents' information. RESULTS: The results revealed moderate-strong correlations between emotional regulation problems and sleep habit disturbances (r = 0.375, p < 0.001), trait (r = 0.488, p < 0.001) anxiety, and state (r = 0.589, p < 0.001) anxiety. Additionally, emotional regulation showed a direct impact on sleep habits (ß = 0.011, p = 0.005). Trait and state anxiety demonstrated a significant mediating role in the relationship between emotional regulation and sleep habits. CONCLUSIONS: Emotional regulation may have an impact on sleep habits during childhood and adolescence, suggesting the importance of early intervention focused on the emotions management and the prevention of sleep habit disturbances.

Anxiety, sleep habits and executive function during the COVID-19 pandemic through parents' perception: a longitudinal study.

The present study therefore aims to examine trait and state anxiety, sleep habits and executive functioning during 1 year and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic in children and adolescents through the lens of parents. Assessments were conducted at three different times: April 2020 (T1), October 2020 (T2) and October 2021 (T3). The main sample included 953 children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years, and scales were used to assess anxiety (STAIC), sleep habits (BEARS) and executive functioning (BRIEF-2). The results showed that 6 months after the outbreak of the pandemic, state and trait anxiety, sleep disturbances and executive dysfunctions increased significantly. One and a half year later, trait anxiety and sleep disturbances have been maintained, while state anxiety and executive dysfunction have decreased their scores obtaining scores similar to those of April 2020. In conclusion, there has been a further decrease in children and adolescents' mental health since the beginning of the pandemic, and it seems to remain at the present time, such as trait anxiety as a part of the personality.

Psychometric Properties of the Spanish Version of the Highly Sensitive Child Scale: The Parent Version.

Environmental sensitivity is the ability to perceive, register and process information about the environment, which differs among children and adolescents. The Highly Sensitive Child (HSC) scale has been used to assess environmental sensitivity in youngsters. The HSC scale is a short and 12-item adapted version of the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) scale. The aim of this pilot study is to transculturally adapt the Highly Sensitive Child (HSC) scale, and to analyze its factorial structure, reliability and validity. First, a transcultural adaptation was conducted by bilingual experts. Second, once the questionnaire was translated, the psychometric properties were analyzed. The Spanish version of the HSC scale was administered to parents answering about information of 141 children between 6 and 10 years old. The Spanish version of the Emotionality, Activity and Sociability Survey (EAS) was also applied. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the three-factor structure of sensitivity in our Spanish sample. This structure included the following dimensions: (1) Ease of Excitation (EOE), (2) Low Sensory Threshold (LST), and (3) Aesthetic Sensitivity (AES). Moreover, both Cronbach's α and McDonald's ω values indicated that the Spanish version of the HSC scale was a reliable measure of environmental sensitivity, as a general factor of sensitivity (α = 0.84), and even in its three dimensions: EOE (α = 0.86), LST (α = 0.77) and AES (α = 0.73). Finally, the correlations for convergent validity showed positive associations, especially among the three dimensions of SPS and Emotionality (EOE r = 0.351; LST r = 0.274; AES r = 0.259), which was one of the domains of the EAS survey. The pilot study provided interesting results, which showed a reliable and valid replication of the original structure of sensitivity in the Spanish samples.

Assessment Strategies to Evaluate the Mediterranean Lifestyle: A Systematic Review.

The Mediterranean Lifestyle (MLS) has been related to better health and quality of life. However, there is no consensus on how to assess this lifestyle. The main objective of this work was to systematically review the methodology used in different studies on the evaluation of the MLS. The specific objectives were (1) to analyze the MLS components evaluated in previous studies, (2) to explore the assessment instruments available for the analysis of the MLS, and (3) to identify the psychometric properties of these instruments. The search was carried out using the PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect databases with the purpose of identifying those published articles in which the MLS was assessed. The review included 26 studies linked to the assessment of the MLS. Of these studies, only four exclusively used a tool to analyze MLS components globally. These studies included two questionnaires and three different indexes. None of them, however, evaluated all of the recognized MLS components, and food preparation was the least frequently evaluated component. Given the clear importance of analyzing MLS adherence and the lack of consensus in previous research, an evaluation tool needs to be created to comprehensively assess all of the MLS dimensions by means of appropriate psychometric properties.

Relationship between Sensory Processing and Quality of Life: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Sensory processing has been described as the ability to register, modulate, and organize sensory information to respond to environmental demands. Different theoretical approaches have studied the differential characteristics of sensory processing, such as Dunn's model. From this framework, high sensitivity in sensory processing has been described as responses to stimuli from environment quite often due to a rapid activation of the central nervous system. It should be noted that the association between high sensitivity in sensory processing and health outcomes obtained in different studies are not homogeneous, so it is necessary to develop a review of this research in order to clarify the relationship between sensory processing and quality of life. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of the relevant studies using the PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and ProQuest databases to assess how sensory processing patterns are related to quality of life. RESULTS: Fourteen studies concerning sensory processing and quality of life were included in the review. Some studies indicate negative, moderate, and significant correlations between these variables in which high sensitivity is related to a poor quality of life in the population studied. CONCLUSIONS: High sensitivity in sensory processing could have a negative impact on quality of life, thereby facilitating a fluctuation in well-being, daily functioning, and health.

Implications of the Online Teaching Model Derived from the COVID-19 Lockdown Situation for Anxiety and Executive Functioning in Spanish Children and Adolescents.

Given the seriousness of the existing situation regarding the mental health of children and adolescents relating to the confinement period imposed due to COVID-19, we conducted this study to describe the effects of the confinement on state anxiety and executive functioning dimensions in a period of online educational modality. A sample of 953 children and adolescents was assessed. A sociodemographic questionnaire, the State Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), and the Behavioral Evaluation of Executive Function (BRIEF-2) scale were applied. The analysis of the results indicates that 68.8% of children and adolescents presented medium-high levels of anxiety. Regarding sex, females showed higher levels of anxiety and worse levels of executive functioning. Although the group aged 11 to 18 years showed methodologically higher state anxiety (p = 0.041) than the group aged 6 to 10 years, the difference was not clinically relevant (δ = -0.113). The state anxiety variable was also correlated positively and significantly to the three executive functioning dimensions explored. In conclusion, it seems evident that COVID-19 lockdowns could have psychological and emotional effects on children and adolescents.

Consequences of COVID-19 Confinement on Anxiety, Sleep and Executive Functions of Children and Adolescents in Spain.

Children and adolescents are not indifferent to the dramatic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need to be forced to live in confinement. The change in life to which they have been abruptly subjected forces us to understand the state of their mental health in order to adequately address both their present and future needs. The present study was carried out with the intention of studying the consequences of confinement on anxiety, sleep routines and executive functioning of 1,028 children and adolescents, aged from 6 to 18 years, residing in Spain to; assess if there are differences regarding these consequences in terms of sex and age; how anxiety affects executive functioning in males and females; and to examine the possible correlations between the measured variables. For this purpose, an online questionnaire containing five sections was designed: the first section gathers information on sociodemographic and health data, while the following sections gather information from different standardized scales which measure anxiety, sleep and executive functions, whose items were adapted in order to be completed by parents, and/or legal guardians. The statistical analyzes carried out highlights significant differences in executive functioning between males and females. In turn, in regards to age, greater difficulties were detected in anxiety in the 9 to 12 age group and greater sleep disturbances between 13 and 18 year olds. On the other hand, significant differences were found in intra-sexual executive functioning depending on whether they presented greater or lesser anxiety, with executive functioning being more tendentiously maladjusted in males than in females, revealing a significantly relevant effect size (p = 0.001; ω2 = 0.27 BRIEF-2; ω2 = 0.19 BDEFS-CA; 95%). Positive correlations are obtained between state anxiety and sleep and executive functioning alterations. Finally, through Path Analysis, it is verified that state anxiety is the variable with the greatest weight within the model that would explain the alteration in the executive functioning of the present sample.

Anxiety, sleep habits and executive function during the COVID-19 pandemic through parents' perception: a longitudinal study

Abstract The present study therefore aims to examine trait and state anxiety, sleep habits and executive functioning during 1 year and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic in children and adolescents through the lens of parents. Assessments were conducted at three different times: April 2020 (T1), October 2020 (T2) and October 2021 (T3). The main sample included 953 children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years, and scales were used to assess anxiety (STAIC), sleep habits (BEARS) and executive functioning (BRIEF-2). The results showed that 6 months after the outbreak of the pandemic, state and trait anxiety, sleep disturbances and executive dysfunctions increased significantly. One and a half year later, trait anxiety and sleep disturbances have been maintained, while state anxiety and executive dysfunction have decreased their scores obtaining scores similar to those of April 2020. In conclusion, there has been a further decrease in children and adolescents' mental health since the beginning of the pandemic, and it seems to remain at the present time, such as trait anxiety as a part of the personality.