Relations Between Inhibition, Executive Functioning, and ADHD Symptoms: A Longitudinal Study from Age 5 to 8½ Years

Abstract

The present study examined whether inhibition measured as early as preschool can predict more general executive functioning and ADHD symptoms at school age. In contrast to previous studies, the present study focused specifically on ADHD symptoms rather than general disruptive behavior problems, and boys and girls were studied separately. The main result was that inhibition was strongly related to ADHD symptoms both in school and at home for boys, but only in the school context for girls. Early inhibition was also significantly related to later executive functioning, and concurrent relations were found between executive functioning and ADHD symptoms, although in both cases only for boys. Besides this, inhibition added significantly to the variance, beyond that of executive functioning, which meant that for boys, inhibition and the other executive functioning explained about half the variance in inattention problems. The stronger relation between inhibition, executive functioning and ADHD symptoms for boys compared to girls could suggests that either the predictors of ADHD are different for the two sexes, or girls are more often equipped with some factor that protects them from developing ADHD symptoms, despite poor executive functioning. However, it is also possible that relations are just harder to demonstrate for girls due to their lower incidence of disruptive problem behaviors.

Predicting the early developmental course of symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

“…Consistent with the literature (Berlin et al, 2003;Campbell et al, 1994;Marakovitz & Campbell, 1998), two of the behavioral inhibition measures (CPT commission errors and DGT) were found to predict ADHD symptoms at first and third grades, and inattention was found to predict ADHD symptoms at first grade. However, as far as we know, the current study is the first to examine and find these effects even after controlling for the longitudinal stability in ADHD symptoms.…”

“…Preschool inhibition deficits predicted later ADHD symptoms both at school and home for boys and in the school context only for girls. Furthermore, Berlin et al (2003) found that preschool inhibition and concurrent executive function measures contributed independently to the variance in ADHD symptoms in school for boys and the sample as a whole. Unlike in the current study, Berlin and colleagues did not examine the predictive association between preschool inattention and ADHD symptoms.…”

“…The majority of these studies (9/11) have found a significant association between ADHD symptoms and deficient behavioral inhibition (Berlin & Bohlin, 2002;Berlin et al, 2003;Byrne, DeWolfe, & Bawden, 1998;Campbell et al, 1982Campbell et al, , 1994Hughes, Dunn, & White, 1998;Marakovitz & Campbell, 1998;Sonuga-Barke et al, 2002;Sonuga-Barke, Dalen, & Remington, 2003), adding credence to the hypotheses that early behavioral inhibition predicts later ADHD symptoms and may influence the relationship between early and later ADHD symptoms.…”

“…Initially stimulated by the work of Campbell and colleagues (Campbell, Pierce, March, Ewing, & Szumowski, 1994;Campbell, Szumowski, Ewing, Gluck, & Breaux, 1982), a growing body of studies have examined ADHD symptoms and behavioral inhibition in preschool children (Berlin, Bohlin, & Rydell, 2003;Marakovitz & Campbell, 1998). The majority of these studies (9/11) have found a significant association between ADHD symptoms and deficient behavioral inhibition (Berlin & Bohlin, 2002;Berlin et al, 2003;Byrne, DeWolfe, & Bawden, 1998;Campbell et al, 1982Campbell et al, , 1994Hughes, Dunn, & White, 1998;Marakovitz & Campbell, 1998;Sonuga-Barke et al, 2002;Sonuga-Barke, Dalen, & Remington, 2003), adding credence to the hypotheses that early behavioral inhibition predicts later ADHD symptoms and may influence the relationship between early and later ADHD symptoms.…”

“…Only three of these studies, however, have specifically examined the predictive relationship between behavioral inhibition at preschool age and ADHD symptoms at school age (Berlin et al, 2003;Campbell et al, 1994;Marakovitz & Campbell, 1998). Berlin and colleagues investigated the association between early inhibition deficits and later symptoms in a large community sample of boys and girls.…”