Adult Concentration Inventory (ACI) Brazilian Portuguese version: cross-cultural adaptation and validation study

Abstract

Introduction: Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) designates a group of symptoms related to impairments in valuable life domains. Objectives: The aims were to translate, adapt and validate a psychometrically informed scale of SCT, the Adult Concentration Inventory (ACI), for the Brazilian context. Method: The scale was translated, back-translated, and evaluated by an expert panel. After the semantic equivalence analysis, 446 participants (295 women) aged 18 to 65 years (M = 34.99, SD = 10.7) answered an internet-based survey. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted with the items of the ACI, Adult Self Report Scale (ASRS-18), the Self-Report Questionnaire (SRQ-20) to evaluate the convergent and discriminant validity of ACI items. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed to test the ACI latent structure. Correlations between ACI, ASRS-18 and SRQ-20 were also calculated. Results: The experts’ semantic equivalence analyzes pointed to 85% of average agreement. The EFA with ACI, ASRS-18, and SRQ-20 showed 10 ACI items with acceptable convergent and discriminant validity. The most suitable solution in the CFA was the one-factor model (RMSEA = 0.039 [IC90%: 0.0 – 0.09]; CFI = 0.997; TLI = 0.996). The reliability was satisfactory (α = 0.920). The correlations between ACI measures and the ASRS-18 inattention were high. Conversely, the correlations with the ASRS-18 hyperactivity-impulsivity were of medium intensity and when controlling for inattention became non-significative. Conclusion: Overall, the preliminary results showed the reliability and validity of the ACI Brazilian Portuguese version. Further studies should focus on determining the generalization and measurement invariance of these findings.

Keywords

• sluggish cognitive tempo
• attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder
• adult
• self-report
• psychometrics