(PS1-C66) Psychometric Properties of a Clinical Interview for Assessing Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome in Children and Adolescents

Cognitive disengagement syndrome (CDS), previously referred to as sluggish cognitive tempo, is a set of symptoms characterized by excessive daydreaming, mental confusion, and slowed behavior/thinking. CDS symptoms are distinct from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) inattention, as well as other psychopathologies, and a growing body of research shows CDS symptoms to be uniquely associated with functional impairment (Barkley, 2014; Becker et al., 2022). However, despite major advancements in rating scale measures for assessing CDS, there is yet to be a validated clinical interview to support a multi-method approach in the assessment of CDS. The current study is an initial examination of the psychometric properties of the semi-structured Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome – Clinical Interview (CDS-CI). Participants were 254 children and adolescents recruited from the community, sampled to ensure the full range of CDS symptom severity (ages 10-12 years; 58% female; 61% White, 22% Black, 14% Multiracial, 2.4% Asian, 0.4% American Indian). The CDS-CI is modeled after the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children (K-SADS) and consists of 15 symptom items that have been shown as optimal items for assessing CDS (Becker, 2021; Sáez et al., 2019). The CDS-CI also includes questions assessing age of onset, duration, and functional impairment. Trained clinicians conducted the CDS-CI and K-SADS separately with the child and with the child’s parent, and multi-informant rating scales were also collected. Both the parent and adolescent CDS-CI scores demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability (αs = .88 and .87, respectively). Additionally, both the parent and youth CDS-CI scores generally demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity with rating scale measures of CDS and other psychopathology dimensions. For example, parent and youth CDS-CI scores were strongly correlated with CDS assessed on parent and youth rating scales (rs = .86 and .61, p < .001). In considering external validity, scores on the CDS-CI were in the expected direction and statistically significant in relation to internalizing symptoms, suicidal ideation, and sleep problems. Moreover, in regression analyses involving self-reported CDS-CI and ADHD symptom dimension scores, CDS scores were uniquely associated with depressive symptoms, sleep-related impairment, and history of suicidal ideation (βs = .33, .36, and .20, respectively; all ps < .05), whereas ADHD symptom dimensions generally were not. These findings provide strong initial evidence for psychometric properties of the CDS-CI semi-structured clinical interview as a clinical tool for assessing CDS in children and adolescents.