Silvia Hidalgo-Berutich

Background: In recent years, there has been an increased interest in studying sensory responses to stimuli in both clinical and non-clinical populations. Sensory reactivity has been linked to restrictive and repetitive behaviors. However, few instruments have been designed to assess the dimensions of sensory hyporeactivity and pain in the general population. Methods: The psychometric properties of the Pain and Sensitivity Reactivity Scale (PSRS) were analyzed in a non-clinical sample of 1122 adolescents and adults (mean age = 22.39, SD = 7.32). Results: The PSRS exhibited excellent psychometric properties, and three first-order factor models were confirmed. The sensory hyperreactivity subscales were highly correlated with the sensory over-responsivity scales, whereas a moderate correlation was found between sensory hyperreactivity measured via the PSRS and OCI-R subscales. Furthermore, sensory hyporeactivity and hyperreactivity appear to be moderately and positively correlated. Differences were observed as a function of gender and age. Conclusions: PSRS may be a reliable measure for analyzing pain and sensory reactivity in neurotypical populations. Future research should include clinical samples and multiple informants.

Background: In recent years there has been an increased interest in studying sensory responses to stimuli in both clinical and non-clinical populations. Sensory reactivity has been linked to restric-tive and repetitive behaviors. However, few instruments have been designed to assess the dimen-sions of sensory hyporeactivity and pain in the general population. Methods: The psychometric properties of the Pain and Sensitivity Reactivity Scale (PSRS) were analyzed in a non-clinical sample of 1,122 adolescents and adults (mean age = 22.39, SD = 7.32). Results: The PSRS exhibited excellent psychometric properties and three first-order factor models were confirmed. The sensory hyperreactivity subscales were highly correlated with the sensory over-responsivity scales, whereas a moderate correlation was found between sensory hyperreactivity measured via the PSRS and OCI-R subscales. Furthermore, sensory hyporeactivity and hyperreactivity appear to be moderately and positively correlated. Differences were observed as a function of sex and age. Conclusions: PSRS is a reliable measure for analyzing pain and sensory reactivity in neurotypical populations. Future research should include clinical samples and multiple informants.

Functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) are characterized by chronic or recurrent gastrointestinal symptoms (GS) that are not explained by structural or biochemical abnormalities. FGIDs are related to lower quality of life, increased demands on medical resources, and greater somatization and emotional instability. Furthermore, GS appears to be an indicator of dysbiosis in gut-microbiota, affecting the gut-microbiota-brain relationship. To develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a new instrument called the Gastrointestinal Symptom Severity Scale (GSSS) using a web-based survey in a sample of neurotypical children and adolescents from Spain. Instrument development and validation processes were applied to the GSSS following its administration as part of an online survey. The sample included 1242 neurotypical children and adolescents. The mean age of participants was 13.95 years, with a standard deviation of 1.37 years. Overall, 13.8% suffered infectious diarrhea, 12.6% suffered abdominal pain, 5% suffered dyspepsia and 2.6% suffered gastro-esophageal reflux. A single-factor model produced good fit indices. Furthermore, internal consistency and test-retest reliability outcomes were acceptable. The GSSS was found to have acceptable metric measurement invariance. Significant correlations with other instruments were produced and were of expected direction and magnitude, confirming scale validity for hypothesis testing.     Conclusions: The GSSS shows promising psychometric properties for assessing GS in neurotypical Spanish adolescents and children. What is Known:• To the best of our knowledge, instruments assessing the severity of gastrointestinal symptoms in children and adolescents are still too few. What is New:• The GSSS shows promising psychometric properties for assessing GS in neurotypical adolescents and children. The GSSS may help improve understanding of GS involvement in the gut-brain microbiota axis in children and adolescents.

Background: Functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) are a set of chronic or recurrent gastrointestinal symptoms (GS) with great psychobiological complexity. The appearance of FGIDs harms quality of life and drains medical resources. Methods: Psychometric properties of the Gastrointestinal Symptom Severity Scale (GSSS) based on Rome IV criteria were examined in a sample of 1247 individuals with typical development. Observations were randomly divided into two subsets, namely, subsample 1 (n = 624) and subsample 2 (n = 623). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed with data from subsample 1, whilst confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed with data from subsample 2. Internal consistency of the scale was assessed for the whole dataset according to ordinal alpha, whilst four-week reliability was measured according to the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Measurement invariance as a function of sex was also examined, and discriminant–convergent validity of the GSSS was examined through hypothesis testing. Results: EFA revealed a two-factor structure with a moderate percentage of explained variance (51.3%), whilst CFA exhibited an excellent fit of the data to the model. A one-factor CFA model demonstrated an acceptable but slightly lower fit. Internal consistency was moderate and test–retest reliability was deemed adequate. Metric invariance was demonstrated as a function of sex. Hypothesis testing demonstrated strong convergent–discriminant validity with measures of sensory sensitivity, obsessive–compulsive symptoms, and pain. Conclusions: The GSSS is a tool with acceptable and promising psychometric properties when administered to neurotypical adolescents and young adults. The self-report GSSS may promote better understanding of GS involvement in the gut microbiota–brain axis in the general population.