The association between sensory processing sensitivity, the five-factor model and university adjustment amongst South African university students

Abstract

Adjusting to university represents a substantial challenge in the lives of emerging adults and has been the focus of significant educational and personality psychology research. To date, however, no study has examined university adjustment as a function of sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) - a personality trait characterised by strong emotional reactivity and a heightened ability to detect and deeply process environmental stimulation, but with a consequent risk for debilitating feelings of overwhelm. Using a multiethnic sample of 580 first year South African psychology students, we examined university adjustment differences between students scoring high and low on SPS. Furthermore, we tested whether the effects of SPS on adjustment were a) independent from the five-factor model and b) moderated by levels of early parental care. We found that students scoring high (vs low) on SPS reported significantly worse adjustment to university. Opposite to theoretical claims, we only found a moderating effect for parental care for students low on SPS. By deconstructing SPS into its component factors, we discovered that poor adjustment was driven by a propensity towards negative affect, but the ability of high SPS individuals to carefully and deeply process stimulation served to partially offset adjustment difficulties. Importantly, SPS appeared to capture variation in university adjustment independent of the five-factor model. We conclude that SPS may be a useful personality construct for identifying students who find university adjustment particularly overwhelming and could thus benefit from targeted support and intervention.