Relationships among highly sensitive personality (HSP), neuroticism, mental health, neurodevelopmental traits, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

AIM: Awareness of mental health is important to reduce stigma and discrimination and increase access to care. From the viewpoint of mental health conditions, this study examined the relationships among highly sensitive personality (HSP) traits and neuroticism in the general population.

METHODS: After obtaining informed consents, an anonymous web-based survey for adult participants with equal data collection across genders and age groups (20s, 30s, and 40s) was conducted using self-report questionnaires about HSP, neuroticism, mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), trauma-related stress, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and awareness of HSP and neurodevelopmental disorders. Participants were divided into the three groups based on HSP or neuroticism, with low, medium, and high groups defined by the mean value ± 1 SD.

RESULTS: Data from 2593 participants were analyzed. High-HSP and high-neuroticism groups exhibited higher levels of depression, anxiety, ASD, ADHD traits, trauma-related stress, and ACEs, compared to the other medium and low groups, respectively. Regarding ACEs, both the high-HSP and high-neuroticism groups showed significantly high rates of psychological abuse and neglect. While the high-neuroticism group showed broad associations across all ACE categories, the high-HSP group showed specific and comparable, or slightly stronger, associations with household mental disorders and physical abuse. In the high-HSP group, more participants answered that being HSP or having a neurodevelopmental disorder was part of their identity.

CONCLUSION: High HSP and high neuroticism show mental health similarities, but HSP uniquely internalizes traits as identity.