Adult ADHD
Visual Abstract
Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and ADHD Symptoms in Relation to Task-Unrelated Thought: Examining Unique Links with Mind-Wandering and Rumination
Sluggish Cognitive Tempo, ADHD, and Mind-Wandering
Joseph W. Fredrick, Michael J. Kofler, Matthew A. Jarrett, G. Leonard Burns, Aaron M. Luebbe, Annie A. Garner, Sherelle L. Harmon, and Stephen P. Becker,
Summarized by:
June 13, 2023
study source
J Psychiatr Res
Apr 2021
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What they studied
This study wanted to examine how closely day-dreaming and rumination are actually linked with ADHD.
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What they found
Day-dreaming and rumination may be more linked with another proposed condition called Sluggish Cognitive Tempo.
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What this means
Though there is a link between day-dreaming and ADHD, day-dreaming can also be caused by other conditions.
Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and ADHD Symptoms in Relation to Task-Unrelated Thought: Examining Unique Links with Mind-Wandering and Rumination
Objectives
While symptoms involving attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity define ADHD, it is a broad condition that leads to symptoms across cognition, emotions, and many other domains.
There has been evidence that some symptoms often associated with ADHD, including alertness and daydreaming, may be part of other conditions, particularly a proposed condition named sluggish cognitive tempo.
This study wanted to further understand sluggish cognitive tempo, its relationship with ADHD, and its link with mind-wandering and rumination.
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Sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) is characterized by excessive daydreaming, inconsistent alertness, and underactive behavior. Although initially viewed as a specifier of, or even redundant with, ADHD inattentive symptoms, a meta-analysis found strong support for SCT symptoms being separable from ADHD inattentive symptoms across child, adolescent, and adult populations
Study Quote
Recent theoretical and empirical evidence highlights associations between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and task-unrelated thought, including mind-wandering and rumination. However, it has been hypothesized that sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT), characterized by ...
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Methods
Researchers conducted psychological testing and surveys on university students, covering their ADHD and SCT symptoms. They also evaluated their rumination and mind-wandering.
Study Quote
Participants (N = 4,679; 18–29 years; 69% female; 80.9% White) enrolled in six universities in the United States completed measures of SCT, ADHD symptoms, internalizing symptoms, and rumination, as well as two scales used to assess mind-wandering.
Results
The results showed that daydreaming was most associated with sluggish cognitive tempo. Sluggish cognitive tempo was more closely correlated with daydreaming than all categories of ADHD symptoms.
Once researchers controlled for sluggish cognitive tempo, the link with ADHD weakened, suggesting that slow cognitive tempo may be more closely linked than ADHD.
Of note, there were also correlations between anxiety, depression, and day-dreaming.
Study Quote
lthough ADHD symptoms were correlated with greater self-reported mind-wandering and rumination, relations with mind-wandering on the daydreaming frequency scale, reflective rumination, and brooding rumination were attenuated when controlling for SCT and internalizing symptoms. Above and ...
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Conclusions
When we think of ADHD, we often imagine a child daydreaming in class when they should be studying.
Based on this and other similar studies, it appears that other conditions may better explain daydreaming in ADHD. However, more research is needed to understand the link.
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Findings of the present study also suggest that previous reports regarding ADHD’s association with mind-wandering may be less robust or more nuanced than previously thought. Though ADHD symptom domains were correlated with greater mind-wandering, these relations became non-significant or attenuated when controlling for SCT and internalizing symptoms
Study Quote
Results provide the first empirical support for unique and robust associations between SCT symptoms and task-unrelated thought, while suggesting that the link between ADHD and mind-wandering may be less robust than previously suggested.