Assessment of sustained attention in high-performance and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children with a vigilance task / Evaluación de la atención sostenida en niños de alto rendimiento y con trastorno por déficit de atención e hiperactividad (TDAH) en una tarea de vigilancia

El objetivo principal de este estudio fue comparar a niños se-leccionados en un contexto comunitario con TDAH, alto rendimiento, y desarrollo normotípico, en una tarea de atención sostenida. Se selecciona-ron tres grupos de niños: TDAH (n= 42), alto rendimiento (n= 20) y desarrollo normotípico (n= 28). Se aplicó una tarea breve de vigilancia computarizada (CSAT-R) para comparar la capacidad deatención y el tiempo de reacción. Para analizar la validez clínica, los participantes se divi-dieron en aquellos con "disfunción atencional" y aquellos con "atención normal”. Los niños con alto rendimiento se diferenciaron claramente de los otros dos grupos, con tamaños del efecto grandes. Las diferencias entre los grupos normotípico y TDAH solo fueron significativas en los errores y en un índice no paramétrico de capacidad de atención, pero con tamaños del efecto pequeños. La CSAT-R mostró una buena especificidad y un valor predictivo positivo aceptable, pero niveles bajos de sensibilidad y un pobre valor predictivo negativo. Por tanto, la atención sostenida podría ser un mecanismo destacado en niños con altas capacidades. La CSAT-R (y pro-bablemente la mayoría de las tareas de atención) sería moderadamente útil en entornos comunitarios para el diagnóstico del TDAH, pero no para des-cartarlo.(AU)

The main objective of this study was to compare children select-ed in a community setting with ADHD, high-performance, and normo-typical development on a sustained attention task. Three groups of chil-dren were selected: ADHD (n= 42), high-performance (n= 20), and nor-mo-typical development (n= 28). A brief computerized vigilance task (CSAT-R) was applied to compare attentional capacity and reaction time. The participants were divided into those with “attentional dysfunction” and those with “normal attention” to analyze clinical validity. Children with high-performance were clearly differentiated from the other two groups, with large effect sizes. The differences between normo-typical and ADHD groups were only significant in the errors and in a nonparametric index of attentional capacity, but with small effect sizes. The CSAT-R showed good specificity and an acceptable positive predictive value, but low levels of sensitivity, and a poor negative predictive value. Therefore, sustained attention could be a prominent mechanism in children with high capacities. The CSAT-R (and probably most of attentional tasks) would be moderately useful in community settings for ADHD diagnosis, but not to rule it out.(AU)

The External Validity of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Versus Inattention in Behavioral, Social Interaction, and Academic Performance Measures.

BACKGROUND: The main objective was to replicate data on the external validity of the Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) dimension, versus ADHD Inattention (IN), with the Spanish version of the Child and Adolescent Behavior Inventory (CABI) SCT subscale [ Cuestionario sobre el Comportamiento de Niños ] (Burns et al., 2015). METHOD: 273 mothers and 255 fathers evaluated their 9 to13 year old children on SCT, IN and other CABI internalizing externalizing, academic impairment and social interaction measures. RESULTS: As hypothesized, the relationship between SCT and externalizing measures, in contrast to IN, was practically nonexistent, whereas both measures were related to internalizing and social interaction measures. Thus, the unique predictive capacity of SCT and IN was significant and similar on internalizing measures, except in the case of shyness, where SCT was better, while IN was better on externalizing measures. CONCLUSIONS: The data largely replicated previous results: SCT, despite its relationship with IN, is capable of predicting a significant proportion of anxiety, depression, and excessive shyness problems and, unlike IN, functions as a protective measure for externalizing problems.

The External Validity of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo Versus Inattention in Behavioral, Social Interaction, and Academic Performance Measures / La Validez Externa del Tempo Cognitivo Lento Frente a la Inatención en Medidas Comportamentales, de Interacción Social y de Rendimiento Académico

Background: The main objective was to replicate data on the external validity of the Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) dimension, versus ADHD Inattention (IN), with the Spanish version of the Child and Adolescent Behavior Inventory (CABI) SCT subscale [Cuestionario sobre el Comportamiento de Niños] (Burns et al., 2015). Method: 273 mothers and 255 fathers evaluated their 9 to13 year old children on SCT, IN and other CABI internalizing externalizing, academic impairment and social interaction measures. Results: As hypothesized, the relationship between SCT and externalizing measures, in contrast to IN, was practically nonexistent, whereas both measures were related to internalizing and social interaction measures. Thus, the unique predictive capacity of SCT and IN was significant and similar on internalizing measures, except in the case of shyness, where SCT was better, while IN was better on externalizing measures. Conclusions: The data largely replicated previous results: SCT, despite its relationship with IN, is capable of predicting a significant proportion of anxiety, depression, and excessive shyness problems and, unlike IN, functions as a protective measure for externalizing problems.(AU)

Antecedentes: El objetivo principal del presente trabajo ha sido replicar datos de la validez externa de la dimensión Tempo Cognitivo Lento (TCL), frente a inatención del TDAH (IN), con la versión española de la medida del TCL del Child and Adolescent Behavior Inventory (CABI) [Cuestionario sobre el Comportamiento de Niños] (Burns et al., 2015). Método: 273 madres y 255 padres evaluaron a sus hijos entre 9 y 13 años en TCL, IN y otras medidas internalizadas, externalizadas, de dificultades académicas e interacción social del CABI. Resultados: La relación de TCL con las medidas externalizadas, al contrario de IN, fue prácticamente nula, en cambio ambas medidas se relacionaron con las medidas internalizadas y de interacción social. La capacidad predictiva única de TCL e IN fue significativa y similar sobre las medidas internalizadas, excepto en el caso de timidez, donde TCL fue superior y, en cambio, en las medidas externalizadas fue superior IN. Conclusiones: Los datos replican en gran parte los resultados previos: el TCL, a pesar de su relación con IN, es capaz de predecir una parte significativa de problemas de ansiedad, depresión y timidez excesiva y, en cambio, al contrario de IN, resulta una medida protectora para los problemas externalizados.(AU)

Feasibility of a virtual reality program to treat children with fear of darkness with nonexpert therapists / Viabilidad de un programa de realidad virtual para tratar niños con miedo a la oscuridad con terapeutas no expertos

Fear of darkness is highly prevalent and stable in children and often ends up becoming a specific situational phobia. The aim of this study is to analyze the feasibility of adapting and applying it through a Virtual Reality (VR) tool by nonexpert therapists. A pre-experimental study was carried out with six participants between the ages of 8 and 12 years old using pre- and posttreatment scales for assessing the fear of darkness. Statistically significant differences with large effects were found in all posttreatment measures: EMO (Roshenthal's r = 0.64), WCDAN (r = 0.52), and Global item of current fear of darkness (r = 0.59). Using the Reliable Change Index (RCI) as a measure of clinically significant change, four participants improved satisfactorily, one acceptably, and the other did not improve. The results support the feasibility of using an adapted VR program to treat fear of darkness without being an expert therapist. However, more detailed experimental studies need to be carried out in order to analyze its efficacy

El miedo a la oscuridad es muy frecuente y estable en los niños y, a menudo, termina convirtiéndose en una fobia situacional específica. El objetivo de este estudio es analizar la viabilidad de adaptarlo y aplicarlo a través de una herramienta de realidad virtual (RV) por terapeutas no expertos. Se ha llevado a cabo un estudio pre-experimental con seis participantes de 8 a 12 años de edad utilizando escalas de pre y postratamiento para evaluar el miedo a la oscuridad. Se han encontrado diferencias estadísticamente significativas con tamaños del efecto grandes en todas las medidas posteriores al tratamiento: EMO (Roshenthal's r = 0.64), WCDAN (r = 0.52), e ítem global del miedo actual a la oscuridad (r = 0.59). Al usar el Índice de Cambio Fiable (ICF) como una medida del cambio clínicamente significativo, cuatro participantes mejoraron satisfactoriamente, uno aceptablemente, y el otro no mejoró. Los resultados apoyan la viabilidad de utilizar un programa de RV adaptado para tratar el miedo a la oscuridad sin necesidad de un terapeuta experto. Sin embargo, se necesitan estudios experimentales más detallados para analizar su eficacia

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

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.

Optimal Items for Assessing Sluggish Cognitive Tempo in Children Across Mother, Father, and Teacher Ratings.

A recent meta-analysis identified optimal items for assessing sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) as distinct from attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder inattention (ADHD-IN), and a preliminary study with teacher ratings of children in the United States found strong support for the convergent and discriminant validity of 15 SCT items. The current study evaluated whether the same 15 SCT items demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity from ADHD-IN in a large, community-based sample of children in Spain, and whether validity results were replicated across mother, father, and teacher ratings. Mothers, fathers, and teachers completed measures of SCT, ADHD-IN, ADHD-hyperactivity/impulsivity, oppositional defiant disorder, limited prosocial emotions, anxiety, depression, shyness, peer rejection, social impairment, and academic impairment on 2,142 Spanish children (49.49% girls; ages 8-13). The 15 SCT symptoms demonstrated convergent validity along with discriminant validity with ADHD-IN across all three informants. The SCT symptom ratings also showed measurement invariance across the informants. In addition, SCT and ADHD-IN factors had different and unique associations with the other symptom and impairment factors. The 15 SCT symptoms identified in this study-consistent across mother, father, and teacher ratings-appear appropriate to serve as a standard symptom set for assessing SCT in children. Use of a common set of symptoms in future studies will advance our understanding of the SCT construct, including its etiology and developmental progression, associations with ADHD and other psychopathologies, links to impairment, and implications for clinical intervention.

Clinical differentiation of sluggish cognitive tempo and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children.

This study (a) determined whether clinical elevations of sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptom distributions in a large community sample of children would allow for identifying SCT-only, ADHD-only, and SCT + ADHD clinical groups; (b) examined co-occurrence of clinically elevated SCT and ADHD; (c) evaluated whether these clinical groups differed in their gender distribution, co-occurring mental health symptoms, or impairment in academic and social functioning; and (d) explored patterns of independence and overlap when clinically elevated depressive symptoms were considered in tandem with SCT and ADHD. Participants were mothers, fathers, and teachers of 2,142 children (50.51% boys, ages 8-13 years) from 32 schools in Spain. All three groups of informants completed measures of SCT, ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), anxiety, depression, shyness, social impairment, and academic impairment. Cut-off scores for the top 5% of the sample were used to create SCT-only, ADHD-only, SCT + ADHD, and comparison groups. Across informants, 4.97%-5.53% met criteria for clinically elevated ADHD-only, and 2.30%-2.80% met criteria for clinically elevated SCT-only; 27%-35% of the ADHD group also met the criteria for the SCT group, whereas 44%-54% of the SCT group met the criteria for the ADHD group (primarily based on inattentive symptoms). The ADHD-only group had higher ODD scores than the SCT-only group, whereas the SCT-only group generally had higher shyness and internalizing scores (particularly depression) than the ADHD-only group. Additional analyses that also included clinically elevated depression revealed that 28-46% of the children with elevated SCT had elevations in neither ADHD nor depression. This study moves the field toward examining both the empirical and clinical differentiation of SCT and ADHD. Findings are discussed regarding how SCT may fit in diagnostic nosologies and models of psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Mother-father agreement and one-year stability of children's sleep functioning.

OBJECTIVES: To (1) evaluate mother-father agreement of total sleep problems and specific sleep problem domains and (2) examine the one-year stability of children's sleep functioning, including cross-rater stability. METHODS: A community-based sample of 519 children (51% boys) in Spain was assessed in third grade and again 1 year later. At each time-point, both mothers and fathers provided ratings of sleep functioning using the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ). RESULTS: Sleep scores did not differ between mothers' and fathers' ratings. Cross-sectionally (at both time-points) and longitudinally (from grade 3 to grade 4), strong agreement was found between mothers' and fathers' ratings of total sleep problems, sleep habits, night wakings, and parasomnias. Lower agreement was found for daytime sleepiness and sleep onset delay. There was large effect size stability for both mothers' and fathers' ratings over the one-year period on the total sleep disturbance scale and most sleep subscales. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides the first evidence of strong mother-father agreement on subjective ratings of children's sleep functioning, both concurrently and over a one-year period, for overall sleep problems and certain sleep domains. However, agreement was far from identical, and further studies are needed to evaluate reasons for discrepancy and whether mother-father discrepancy in sleep functioning predicts children's functioning. More studies are needed that systematically include both mothers' and fathers' perspectives regarding children's sleep.

The role of perceptual information in familiarity-based scene recognition.

A method to analyze the role of familiarity in recognizing pictures of everyday scenes is introduced. The idea is to manipulate two within-subjects conditions: an experimental condition where the scenes repeat perceptual information (e.g. buildings and/or vehicles) and a control condition. The results show the two conditions did not differ in terms of hit rates, but in the experimental condition there were significantly fewer false alarms, yielding better results, which supports the findings of past research studies that have used verbal materials. This perceptual facilitation was maintained throughout a week-long retention interval. Finally, a detailed analysis of this facilitation shows it was due to a significant reduction in false alarms on know judgments, emphasizing familiarity's role in explaining this effect.

The role of perceptual information in familiarity-based scene recognition

A method to analyze the role of familiarity in recognizing pictures of everyday scenes is introduced. The idea is to manipulate two within-subjects conditions: an experimental condition where the scenes repeat perceptual information (e.g. buildings and/or vehicles) and a control condition. The results show the two conditions did not differ in terms of hit rates, but in the experimental condition there were significantly fewer false alarms, yielding better results, which supports the findings of past research studies that have used verbal materials. This perceptual facilitation was maintained throughout a week-long retention interval. Finally, a detailed analysis of this facilitation shows it was due to a significant reduction in false alarms on know judgments, emphasizing familiarity’s role in explaining this effect (AU)

Presentamos un método para analizar el papel que la familiaridad juega en el reconocimiento de fotografías de escenas cotidianas. La idea consiste en manipular dos condiciones intrasujeto: una condición experimental en la que se presentan fotografías en las que se repite información perceptual (p.e. edificios y/o vehículos) frente a otra condición control. Los resultados muestran que no hay diferencias en las tasas de aciertos de ambas condiciones, pero sí una reducción significativa de las falsas alarmas en la condición experimental, lo que provoca una mejor rendimiento en esta condición, patrón de resultados que coincide con el hallado utilizando materiales verbales. Dicha facilitación perceptual se mantiene así mismo tras una semana del estudio de los materiales. Por último el análisis pormenorizado de dicha facilitación nos muestra que es debida principalmente a una reducción significativa de las falsas alarmas en los juicios saber, lo que remarca el papel que la familiaridad juega en la explicación de dicho efecto (AU)