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Advancing the Multi-Informant Assessment of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo: Child Self-Report in Relation to Parent and Teacher Ratings of SCT and Impairment

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Abstract

Despite increasing interest in sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) in children and advancements in its measurement, little research has examined child self-reported SCT. Child self-report of SCT is important for the multi-informant assessment of SCT. The current study used a large, school-based sample of children and a multi-informant design to examine child self-reported SCT using the Child Concentration Inventory – Version 2 (CCI-2) which was recently revised based on meta-analytic findings and parallels the item content of validated parent and teacher rating scales. The study involved 2142 unique children (ages 8–13 years, 50.51% males). Children (n = 1980) completed measures of SCT, loneliness, and preference for solitude. Mothers (n = 1648), fathers (n = 1358), and teachers (n = 1773) completed measures of SCT, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-IN (ADHD-IN), academic impairment, social impairment, and conflicted shyness. Children’s self-reported SCT demonstrated good reliability with the 15 SCT symptoms showing moderate to strong loadings on the SCT factor. The child self-report SCT factor also showed moderate convergent validity with mother, father, and teacher ratings of children’s SCT. In addition, higher child-reported SCT predicted greater mother, father, and teacher ratings of children’s academic impairment even after controlling for mother, father, and teacher ratings of children’s SCT and ADHD-IN. Higher child-rated SCT also predicted greater mother ratings of children’s social impairment after controlling for mother ratings of children’s SCT and ADHD-IN. The present study provides initial empirical support for the reliability and validity of child-reported SCT as part of the multi-informant assessment of SCT. A key direction for future research includes evaluating the unique contributions of different informants and their utility within specific contexts to guide evidence-based recommendations for assessing SCT.

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Notes

  1. We also repeated the three structural regression analyses controlling for parent-report of ADHD and LD status. All the significant and non-significant results for the structural regression analyses remained the same after also controlling for ADHD and LD status as reported by parents.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government under award number PSI2014-52605-R (AEI/FEDER, UE) and a predoctoral fellowship co-financed by MINECO (Spanish Government) and the European Social Fund (BES-2015-075142). Stephen Becker is supported by award number K23MH108603 from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or the Spanish Government. We thank Cristina Trias for assistance with the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute on Health Sciences, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain

    Belén Sáez & Mateu Servera

  2. Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA

    G. Leonard Burns

  3. Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, 45229, USA

    Stephen P. Becker

  4. Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Stephen P. Becker

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  1. Belén Sáez
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  2. Mateu Servera
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Correspondence to Stephen P. Becker.

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The research protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committee (Institutional Review Board [IRB]) of the University of the Balearic Islands.

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Mothers, fathers, and teachers provided written informed consent and children provided verbal assent.

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Sáez, B., Servera, M., Burns, G.L. et al. Advancing the Multi-Informant Assessment of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo: Child Self-Report in Relation to Parent and Teacher Ratings of SCT and Impairment. J Abnorm Child Psychol 47, 35–46 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-018-0436-4

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