Cognitive flexibility and disorganized thoughts in a sample drawn from the general population: Moderating roles of...

Disorganized thinking has been increasingly recognized as existing along a continuum in the general population. Cognitive flexibility has yielded inconsistent findings with respect to its relationship to disorganized thinking. Individual differences such as sex and self-esteem may account for this variability. This study aimed to assess the association between self-perceived, subjective cognitive flexibility and disorganized thinking in a general population sample, by exploring the moderating effects of sex and self-esteem. A cross-sectional study was performed between May and November 2025 among 553 general population adults (63.5% females) from Tunisia. The Disorganized Thoughts Scale, the Arabic Cognitive Flexibility Scale, and the self-report single-item self-esteem scale were administered to participants. Findings indicated that the relationship between cognitive flexibility and disorganized thinking was moderated by sex and self-esteem such that higher levels of cognitive flexibility were associated with lower levels of disorganized thinking among females (β=-0.62, p < 0.001) but not males, and this relationship was observed only at moderate to high levels of self-esteem. Findings suggest that the relationship between cognitive processes and disorganized thinking may be subject to the effect of other psychological factors. The identification of such factors may be essential for the development of effective prevention strategies and the promotion of mental health.