Predicting academic impairment and internalizing psychopathology using a multidimensional framework of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo with parent- and adolescent reports

Adolescents with Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) exhibit symptoms of slowness, mental confusion, excessive daydreaming, low motivation, and drowsiness/sleepiness. Although many symptoms of SCT reflect internalizing states, no study has evaluated the clinical utility of self-report of SCT in an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) sample. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether SCT is best conceptualized as a unidimensional or multidimensional construct. In a sample of 262 adolescents comprehensively diagnosed with ADHD, the present study used adolescent- and parent reports of SCT to evaluate the predictive utility of a general SCT factor from a bifactor modeling approach compared the utility of three specific SCT factors (slow, sleepy, and daydreamer) for predicting academic impairment and internalizing psychopathology. Overall, a multidimensional framework of SCT was supported, with the three SCT factors differentially predicting impairment and in one case (school grades), predicting impairment when the general factor did not. Consistent with prior research, SCT slow behaviors appear to be most strongly associated with impairment, predicting both academic impairment and internalizing psychopathology. Parent report of SCT was most useful for predicting academic functioning, whereas youth self-report was important for predicting anxiety and depression. Implications of the findings for the assessment and potential treatment of SCT are discussed.