In France, more than one in ten school-aged children suffers from a mental health disorder, and half of these disorders appear before the age of 14. Yet, only half of affected children receive appropriate support. At the cognitive level, it is now widely accepted by the scientific community that strong socio-cognitive skills protect against the emergence of certain disorders. Social cognition skills, crucial for development and social integration, are often underestimated in clinical neuropsychology, particularly due to the lack of validated assessment tools for children.
The challenges related to the clinical assessment of social cognition in children and adolescents are therefore significant, especially since specific deficits are likely to be associated with numerous developmental pathologies and psychiatric disorders (neurodevelopmental disorders, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders). However, these disorders are insufficiently assessed. A more precise characterization would allow for the identification of therapeutic targets specific to each neurodevelopmental disorder.
Therefore, this research aims to address this lack of tools by using a multidimensional assessment battery of social cognition in children and adolescents aged 8 to 16, evaluating four fundamental domains of social cognition: emotion processing, social perception, theory of mind, and attributional style. This multidimensional assessment battery of social cognition is developed by the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department of Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital.
Children and adolescents aged 8 to 16 years
Proficiency in French (native language)
Information and consent obtained from those holding parental authority, and agreement from the child or adolescent
No recently modified (<6 weeks) psychotropic medication from the following categories: antidepressants, anxiolytics, antipsychotics, psychostimulants, mood stabilizers.
None
Parallel
Test
Other interventionSocial cognition battery developed by the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department of Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital: 4 tasks allow exploration of the components of social cognition: 1. Dynamic emotion recognition task 2. Contextual emotion recognition task 3. Combined theory of mind and social perception task 4. Attributional style
Questionnaires
Other interventionStandard supplementary tasks assessing social cognition and executive functions, as well as parent questionnaires, will be administered : * Conners 3 * Child Behavior Checklist * SOCODEV : Social Skills Assessment Questionnaire * Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function * Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale * Autism Diagnostic Interviex-Revised * Intention Attribution Test for Children
Overall social cognition score and scores per dimension, obtained on the multidimensional social cognition battery
The overall social cognition score, as well as the scores for each dimension, obtained on the multidimensional social cognition battery, will be compared between groups of children and adolescents with ASD, ADHD, and MCDD. The sensitivity and specificity of the multidimensional social cognition battery will be assessed by evaluating the ability of the tests to highlight socio-cognitive difficulties in clinical children, without claiming to be used for independent diagnosis.
Influence of socio-demographic factors on social cognition performance
Study of the influence of socio-demographic factors: analyze the impact of factors such as age, sex, socio-economic level and family characteristics on social cognition performance obtained on the multidimensional social cognition battery, in order to better understand individual and contextual variations.
Influence of cognitive factors on social cognition
Study of the influence of cognitive factors on social cognition: examine the influence of overall cognitive efficiency (IQ) and executive functions (EF) on social cognition abilities, assessed by the multidimensional social cognition battery, in order to identify the interactions between cognitive and sociocognitive dimensions.
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Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris
Lead sponsor
URC-CIC Paris Descartes Necker Cochin
Collaborator
