Predictors of Environmental Sensitivity in Syrian Refugee Children

Environmental sensitivity is a dimension of personality influencing the extent to which individuals are impacted by their context. Early prediction of sensitivity levels may inform numerous clinical and social outcomes, however, few predictors of sensitivity are currently known. Here, we ask what are the statistically significant genetic and environmental predictors of self-reported sensitivity, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, in a sample of refugee children? Our main objective is to use elastic net regression to identify the best subset of predictors. Participants include 1,594 Syrian refugee children (aged 6-20 years old) and their caregivers. Data were collected at two time points, spaced 12 months apart. An 80/20 split will be used to create training and test datasets. Predictor variables will be tested for association with self-reported sensitivity using elastic net regression. As an exploratory analysis, we will examine which predictor variables covary with changes in sensitivity across 12 months.