National Institute of Mental Health 5R01MH122415-05

Longitudinal Examination of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and Internalizing Psychopathology in Adolescence

This award funds a longitudinal study investigating sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) and its relationship to internalizing psychopathology in adolescents, aiming to understand SCT's role in mental health outcomes and mechanisms over time.

Description

Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) is a set of behavioral symptoms characterized by excessive daydreaming, slowed thinking, and mental confusion and fogginess. It is now established that SCT can be reliably measured across parent, teacher, and self-report ratings and is distinct from other psychopathology dimensions including ADHD and internalizing symptoms. A rapidly growing body of research also demonstrates SCT to be strongly associated with functional impairment, above and beyond other psychopathologies. However, SCT remains absent from current models of psychopathology, in large part because the field lacks rigorous longitudinal research examining SCT in relation to other psychopathologies. In cross-sectional studies, SCT symptoms are consistently and strongly associated with internalizing symptoms. Preliminary findings also document associations between SCT and increased suicide risk. Our pilot data show SCT predicts increased internalizing symptoms rather than the reverse. Further, SCT symptoms uniquely predict internalizing problems and not externalizing behaviors, suggesting that SCT may be a unique factor in understanding the development of internalizing problems specifically. This study will address these limitations by using a prospective longitudinal, multi-informant, multi-method design across early adolescence to examine SCT symptoms as a predictor of internalizing outcomes and test mechanisms and vulnerabilities linking SCT to internalizing symptoms in a community sample enriched for SCT symptomatology. A community-based sample of 330 young adolescents (ages 10-12) will be recruited and assessed at three timepoints one year apart. The study will use physiological, behavioral, and self-report measures to examine SCT symptoms as a predictor of internalizing psychopathology change over time, test mechanisms, and explore vulnerabilities such as physiological reactivity and punishment sensitivity.

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