Heterogeneity in Clinical Symptoms and Cognitive Functioning of Children with Hyperactivity-Impulsivity and Inattention: Dimensional and Person-Centered Perspectives

Abstract

Abstract:The goal of this study was to investigate heterogeneity in clinical symptoms and cognitive functioning among children with hyperactivity-impulsivity and inattention using a novel approach that combined dimensional and personcentered perspectives. Executive, verbal and visuo-spatial functioning, hyperactivity-impulsivity, inattention 2016 , vol. 47(2) 195-206 DOI -10.1515 /ppb-2016 Our population of interest is children with parent-and teacher-rated ADHD symptoms. For a diagnosis of ADHD, the child must display symptoms in at least two different settings, such as at home and at school and information needs to be gathered from two or more informants (APA, 2000). However, a lot of children with subclinical ADHD symptoms suffer from self-regulation difficulties, experience problems in day-to-day life (especially in social and school functioning) and are often referred to psychologists and other specialists as they need therapeutic help (Kóbor, Takács, Urbán & Csépe, 2002;Rielly, Craig & Parker, 2006). Children with subclinical and clinical ADHD are characterized by high heterogeneity in terms of, among others: cognitive functioning, clinical symptoms, comorbid symptoms, and presentation of symptoms in different settings. Thus, it is important to differentiate groups of children with elevated ADHD symptoms characterized by various profiles of self-regulation difficulties in order to enable the development of more effective therapeutic and educational methods adjusted to the areas of problems in functioning. Polish Psychological BulletinSeveral studies revealed heterogeneity in cognitive functioning, especially in efficiency of executive functions, of children with ADHD symptoms (Chhabildas, Pennington & Willcutt, 2001;Nigg,Willcutt, Doyle & Sonuga-Barke, 2005). In many theoretical models (e.g., Barkley, 1997;Nigg, 2001;Schachar, Tannock, & Logan, 1993), executive function deficits are central to the explanation of the underlying mechanisms that lead to the manifestation of symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Studies have consistently shown that the average performance in executive function tests of children with ADHD (especially those diagnosed with either the combined or predominantly inattentive subtypes) is significantly lower than the performance of children in a control group (Chhabildas et al., 2001;Nigg et al., 2005). However, the meta-analysis conducted by Nigg and colleagues (2005) revealed that there is a much greater variance in the scores of children with ADHD in comparison to children without ADHD on executive function tests. The distributions of these test scores for children in the control group and in the clinical group do overlap with some children with ADHD performing within the normal range on these tasks.Moreover, deficits in other various spheres of cognitive functioning were observed in children with ADHD symptoms: they achieve lower results on Unauthenticated Download Date | 5/11/18 8:59 PM

Infant Attentional behaviors Are Associated With ADHD Symptomatology and Executive Function in Early Childhood

“…Relatedly, the majority of research linking EF deficits with ADHD compare children with and without a diagnosis. Arguably, however, ADHD may best be approached from a dimensional perspective, as subthreshold ADHD symptoms are also related to a range of deficits (Gambin & Świȩcicka, 2016; Hong et al, 2014; Neely et al, 2016). Although there has been little examination of associations between dimensional measures of ADHD symptomatology and EF, existing research has specifically considered symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity in relation to aspects of EF (Neely et al, 2016; Takeuchi et al, 2013).…”