Abstract
Around 30% of children are highly sensitive to their environment and process experiences particularly deeply. To facilitate research into highly sensitive children in primary school, we developed a new teacher-report measure. The scale was initially implemented and analysed in a multi-informant sample of two hundred twenty 6–9-year-old Swiss children and their parents and teachers, followed by a validation study in England encompassing teacher reports on two hundred seven 6–9-year-old British children. Analysis across both samples led to a scale well suited to capture sensitivity in the context of school. The new Highly Sensitive Child in School scale (HSC – School) includes a six-item core sensitivity scale aimed at identifying sensitive children and an additional 3-item overstimulation scale. Sensitivity measured with this scale is normally distributed, presents similarly in girls and boys, but only correlates with overstimulation in some (UK sample) but not other contexts (Swiss sample), highlighting that sensitive children's adjustment differs across school environments. This scale will be valuable for research and the identification of children at risk during potentially stressful transitioning periods or when confronted with challenges or stressors at home or school.