4 For better, for worse, or both? 113 supportive environments (Pluess, 2017; Pluess & Belsky, 2013). Finally, there are (3) “for better and for worse” models, including the sensory processing sensitivity (Aron & Aron, 1997), biological sensitivity to context (Boyce & Ellis, 2005; Ellis & Boyce, 2008), and differential susceptibility models (Belsky, 1997; Belsky et al., 2007; Belsky & Pluess, 2009). The latter set of theoretical models offer an alternative explanation and propose that sources of environmental sensitivity (e.g., temperamental and genetic variants) not only makes individuals more prone to suffer from adverse environments but also more likely to benefit from supportive environments. Although the three theories converge in their ideas to which type of environmental influences highly sensitive individuals respond more strongly, they all agree that there is another subgroup who is much less or not at all responsive to environmental influences (“for neither”). Figure 1 Illustration of Four Different Responsivity Patterns Time Level of functioning Negative influence Positive influence (B) Vantage sensitivity (C) Differentialsusceptibility (A) Diathesis-stress 2. Vantage sensitive 4. Unsusceptible 3. Differentially susceptible 1. Adverse sensitive Note. The “coexisting responsivity patterns hypothesis” proposes that the three different environmental sensitivity models coexist. The models describe either a subgroup showing responsivity (1) “for worse” (diathesis-stress, left panel), (2) “for better” (vantage sensitivity, right panel), or (3) “for better and for worse” (differential susceptibility, left & right panel). All models describe another subgroup showing (4) no responsivity, thus “for neither”. Based on Figure 1 in “Individual Differences in Environmental Sensitivity,” by M. Pluess, 2015, Child Development Perspectives, 9, pp. 138–143. After the formulation of “for better and for worse” models, empirical parenting research tried to establish which of the three theoretical models best describes the empirically
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