Development of Sensory Sensitivity Scales (SeSS): Reliability and validity analyses

• Published in: Research in developmental disabilities Vol. 100; p. 103612
• Main Authors: Aykan, Simge, Vatansever, Gözde, Doğanay-Erdoğan, Beyza, Kalaycıoğlu, Canan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Ltd 01-05-2020
• Subjects: Adult; Auditory Perception; Autism Spectrum Disorder - physiopathology; Autism Spectrum Disorder - psychology; Autistic traits; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Healthy Volunteers; Humans; Male; Pain Perception; Perception; Perceptual Disorders - physiopathology; Perceptual Disorders - psychology; Pruritus; Reliability; Reproducibility of Results; Sensory sensitivity; Surveys and Questionnaires; Touch Perception; Validity; Visual Perception; Young Adult; Validity; Sensory sensitivity; Reliability; Autistic traits
• ISSN: 0891-4222; 1873-3379
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103612

•SeSS are valid and reliable measures of sensory sensitivities.•Visual, auditory and somatosensory sensitivity can be measured separately by SeSS.•Somatosensation dissociated into subdomains as touch, itch and pain.
Although adults are known to have sensory sensitivity differences, existing sensitivity scales have been mostly developed for children. The limited number of adult scales measure social/emotional features and modalities together.
To develop scales for adults that evaluate visual, auditory and somatosensory sensitivities as separate domains and independent of social/emotional features.
Two consecutive studies (visual-auditory part and somatosensory part) were conducted using the same methods. Both studies included a pilot (n1 = 405 and n2 = 294) and a main group (n1 = 425 and n2 = 603). An exploratory factor analysis produced a single-factor solution for the visual and auditory domains and a three-factor solution for the somatosensory domain (touch, pain, and itch) of Sensory Sensitivity Scales.
A confirmatory factor analysis revealed good construct validity in the the visual (CFI = .973, TLI = .965, and RMSEA = .075) auditory (CFI = .943, TLI = .927, and RMSEA = .074) and somatosensory (CFI = .955, TLI = .946, and RMSEA = .048) scales. The categories were internally consistent (αv = .86, αa = .79, αs = .69). As an indicator of convergent validity, higher autistic traits were related to higher sensitivity (rs-v = .17, rs-a = .25, rs-s = .14).
Sensory Sensitivity Scales (SeSS) can be used to screen sensory sensitivity variability or identify and follow up the outcome of sensory interventions in adults.