Relationships Between Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome, Personality Factors, and Lifestyle Factors in Late Childhood: A Comparison with Inattentive Symptoms

Objectives: Cognitive disengagement syndrome (CDS) is characterized by mental confusion, sluggishness, daydreaming, and hypoactivity that is distinct from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. However, understanding of CDS in South Korea remains limited, and it is often overlooked as merely a characteristic of early adolescence or misinterpreted as inattention. This study examined how children’s personality factors (reinforcement sensitivity) and lifestyle factors (sleep duration and media-use time) are related to CDS and inattentive symptoms.Methods: This study used data from the six major metropolitan regions in South Korea. The sample consisted of 420 children (girls: 211, 50.2%) in elementary school grades 4 to 6. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to investigate the relationship between the predictors and the two symptoms using the SPSS 29.0 program.Results: First, children’s sociodemographic variables influenced CDS and inattentive symptoms in different ways. Specifically, the family’s perceived economic status significantly predicted CDS, whereas the child’s sex and birth order significantly predicted inattentive symptoms. Second, children’s personality traits, particularly reinforcement sensitivity, significantly predicted both symptoms; however, the predictive patterns differed across the subtypes of punishment sensitivity and reward sensitivity. Third, sleep duration and media-use time significantly predicted children’s CDS only.Conclusion: This study served as an initial effort to broaden understanding of CDS, a relatively recent construct. It examined whether the independence between CDS and inattentive symptoms previously demonstrated primarily in Western population also holds true for Korean children. This study identified the influence of personality based vulnerabilities and environmental factors on the two symptoms, highlighting the need for differentiated strategies tailored to each symptom.