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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

The mediating role of self-esteem in sensory processing sensitivity and affective dependence among adolescents and young adults

Jimmy Bordarie1†* ,  Anais Seite2† ,  Alizée Richally2 ,  Amandine Deloustal2 ,  Caroline Giraudeau3
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1 Department of Psychology, Qualité de vie et santé psychologique, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Tours, Tours, France
2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Tours, Tours, France
3 Department of Psychology, Psychologie des âges de la vie et adaptation, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Tours, Tours, France
†These authors contributed equally to this work.
JCBP, 025070011 https://doi.org/10.36922/JCBP025070011
Submitted: 10 February 2025 | Revised: 13 March 2025 | Accepted: 14 March 2025 | Published: 3 April 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is an innate personality trait that affects approximately 30% of the population. It is characterized by more intense, complex, and rapid cognitive processing of stimuli, along with heightened emotional reactivity. This study examines the influence of SPS on self-esteem and affective dependence in adolescents and emerging adults, a critical developmental period marked by significant physical, psychological, emotional, and social changes. Adolescence is a sensitive developmental period, and self-esteem is strongly correlated with SPS during this period, with low self-esteem acting as a trigger for affective dependence. Hence, we aim to explore the relationship between these three variables. Our hypotheses were tested on 100 adolescents and young adults aged 15 – 20 years who completed an online questionnaire assessing SPS, self-esteem, and affective dependence. The results confirmed the influence of gender on sensitivity and self-esteem (p<0.01) and the impact of romantic relationship experience on affective dependence scores (p<0.05). The variables were significantly correlated (p<0.001). Sensitivity and self-esteem influenced affective dependence (p<0.001), and self-esteem played a mediating role between sensitivity and affective dependence. Our findings support the hypothesis that higher SPS is a vulnerability factor in the development of affective dependence. However, this study has some limitations, such as a small sample size, which limits generalizability. Therefore, further studies on a larger cohort can be conducted to validate these findings.

Keywords
High sensory processing sensitivity
Self-esteem
Affective dependence
Adolescents
Young adults
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Journal of Clinical and Basic Psychosomatics, Electronic ISSN: 2972-4414 Print ISSN: 3060-8562, Published by AccScience Publishing
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