BLOQUE 01
Sensitivity
How sensory processing sensitivity is distributed and which profiles appear in the sample.
- Sensory processing
- Sensitivity profiles
- Developmental differences
About ASSMA · Public project information
ASSMA is a research project on high sensitivity and adolescent mental health.
ASSMA is a research project focused on the relationship between sensory processing sensitivity and mental health in school-aged adolescents, with particular attention to the risk and protective factors that influence wellbeing during this stage.
Target population
Year 6 of Primary to Year 4 of Secondary
Adolescents enrolled in educational centres
Expected sample
Up to 6,000 participants
Including public, state-subsidised and private schools
Implementation
Short sessions in schools
Indicative reference: 4 sessions of around 30 minutes
WHY IT EXISTS
Origin.
Adolescence is a particularly sensitive stage for emotional wellbeing. Many mental health difficulties emerge before the age of 14 and are often not detected in time or properly understood in relation to school, family and personal context.
ASSMA starts from the premise that sensory processing sensitivity is not a disorder, but a trait that may be associated with greater vulnerability or greater responsiveness to support depending on the environment. The project seeks specific evidence in Spanish adolescent populations to better understand that relationship.
«The goal is not to detect more quickly. It is to better understand how sensitivity and context interact in adolescent mental health, and to return useful evidence to schools, families and professionals.»
OBJECT OF STUDY
What ASSMA studies.
The project brings together the perspective on the trait of sensitivity with mental health indicators and contextual variables that are relevant in adolescent life.
BLOQUE 02
Mental health
Indicators of wellbeing, emotional distress and other factors linked to adolescence.
- Internalising symptoms
- Emotional wellbeing
- Self-concept
BLOQUE 03
Context
Family climate, school adjustment and other risk and protective variables.
- Family climate
- School adjustment
- Parenting style
BLOQUE 04
Development
Differences across educational stages and developmental nuances within adolescence.
- Stage comparison
- Trajectories
- Context reading
METHODOLOGY
How it is applied.
ASSMA is conceived as a national study with school-aged adolescents. Planned participation covers public, state-subsidised and private schools in order to gather a broad and diverse sample.
- Target population: students from Year 6 of Primary to Year 4 of Secondary.
- Expected sample: up to 6,000 participants.
- Data collection through several short sessions in the educational centre.
How it is carried out in practice
An approach that fits the school context, with a clear structure and compatibility with school coordination.
01
Preparation
Coordination with school leadership, educational teams and counselling staff, together with family information and the management of authorisations.
02
Delivery in short sessions
The work plan envisages several short sessions, with a reference of four sessions of around 30 minutes.
03
Results analysis
Patterns in the relationship between sensitivity, mental health and contexts of risk and protection are examined.
04
Feedback and transfer
Public feedback is framed in aggregated terms and oriented towards improving knowledge and educational practice.
4 × 30′
short sessions
Sessions spread over several weeks, integrated into tutoring and coordinated with counselling.
Important limit:
the platform is not presented as an automatic diagnostic system and does not replace professional assessment.
WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT
IT DOES
What ASSMA brings.
- Structures voluntary school participation.
- Collects information in an orderly and respectful way.
- Enables professional reading and review by school teams.
- Returns aggregated results to the community.
- Connects leadership, counselling, tutors and families.
- Supports prevention and continuous improvement.
IT DOES NOT
What ASSMA is not.
- It does not issue psychological or clinical diagnoses.
- It does not detect disorders automatically.
- It does not replace psychology or psychiatry professionals.
- It does not provide individual results without professional reading.
- It does not promise absolute legal compliance or clinical certification.
- It does not analyse students without prior family authorisation.
RESPONSIBLE USE
Data handled with care.
Ethics, privacy and data care
Restricted access
Only people authorised by the school and the project access the information.
Aggregated results
Decisions are made on aggregated readings, not individual ones.
Professional reading
Results are reviewed by professional teams before they are returned.
Voluntary participation
Without family authorisation, no information about the minor is collected.
Information for families
Families receive clear explanations before any session.
Coordination with the school
Data management is explicitly agreed with school leadership.
Technical basis of the deployment
The platform relies on European cloud infrastructure and on security measures, access controls and backups consistent with the project's sensitivity.
Current technical documentation places the deployment on OVHcloud and references provider frameworks and certifications such as ISO 27001, 27017, 27018 and 27701, together with GDPR compliance in the European environment.
This mention describes the technical basis of the hosting and should not be read as a commercial promise or as a certification belonging to the project itself.
EXPECTED VALUE
What value it may provide.
ASSMA's public interest lies in generating useful evidence to better understand adolescence and to inform educational and preventive decisions on a stronger empirical basis.
01
Educational centres
A better understanding of risk and protective factors, and a stronger basis for educational guidance and prevention.
02
Families and professionals
A clearer and less stigmatising language for discussing sensitivity and emotional wellbeing in adolescence.
03
Research and collaboration
Data and learning that can support future research, materials and institutional collaboration.
TEAM
Who is behind it.
The project brings together academic profiles and collaborators linked to psychology, education and digital environment development.
Moisés Betancort
Universidad de La Laguna
María de la Luz Morales Botello
Universidad Europea de Madrid
Antonio Pérez Chacón
IDUE-UDIMA
Manuela Pérez-Chacón
IDUE-UDIMA
Maria Rosa González Guardia
Universidad de La Laguna
Lorea Zubiaga
Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera
Darío A. Pérez González
Psicometrik & Universidad Europea de Canarias
PARTNERS
Collaborating organisations.
Universities and organisations linked to the project and its deployment.
Universidad de La Laguna
University
IDUE — Instituto Desarrollo Universidad Empresa
Partner organisation
UDIMA — Universidad a Distancia de Madrid
University
Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera
University
Universidad Europea
University
FUNDESPAS
Partner organisation
PAS España
Partner organisation
PSICOMETRIK
Technology development and support
Logos are used for identification purposes only.
NEXT STEP
Shall we explore it with your team?
If you would like to assess a school's participation, request information or explore a possible collaboration, you can write directly to the project team.
Project email
moibemo@ull.edu.es