An examination into the relationship between the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and aggression.
Creators: name: Rynard, David William.
Publisher: name: Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Year: 1991
Subjects: subject: Psychology, Behavioral.

description: Recent research indicates that the presence of aggressive behaviour in boys diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is related to a poorer prognosis, different etiological factors, interpersonal problems, and the selection of appropriate treatment components than ADHD without aggression. Unfortunately, many studies examining various deficits thought to be specific to ADHD children have failed to utilize data from different diagnostic sources to allow for comparisons between attention/overactivity and aggressive symptomatology. The present investigation utilized a between groups comparison design with group assignment based on a two step-multisource inclusion criterion (DICA-P Interview and IOWA Conners) to make comparisons across four groups: hyperactive-only (IO, N = 12), aggressive-only (AGG, N = 16), hyperactive/aggressive (IO/AGG, N = 35) and normal controls (N = 33). Subjects were compared on parent and teacher rating scales and interviews, laboratory measures of vigilance, impulsivity, higher-order learning/memory, family functioning, general and social attribution, and self-report ratings. The results of this study partially support the use of parent and teacher rating scales in making distinctions between aggressive and hyperactive children. In agreement with previous studies, mothers of boys in the AGG and IO/AGG groups described a greater number of depressive, anxious, oppositional behaviours, and family psychosocial stress than did mothers in IO and Control groups. All clinical groups were rated by parents and teachers as displaying a higher frequency of disruptive and impulsive behaviours, and peer-related difficulties. Discriminant analyses on parent and teacher ratings revealed that boys in the AGG and IO/AGG group were the most similar in terms of symptomatology. Prediction on scales of the separate rating and interviews was best for IO and Control groups. The IO/AGG received the highest ratings on parent and teacher rating scales. In contrast to the predictions made between experimental groups, the IO/AGG subjects displayed only some common characteristics with IO subjects. IO subjects displayed more evidence of cognitive dysfunction on the high-order learning task and Delay task of the Gordon Diagnostic System (GDS). The lack of reliable group differences on the GDS Vigilance task and Efficiency Ratio of the Delay task questions the validity of the GDS in the diagnosis of ADHD and highlights the importance of designing new tasks to assess impulsivity and attention which hold important social/motivational and age-related factors constant. Predicted group differences were also not evident on the Beitchman self-report rating or general attribution questionnaire. All clinical groups described greater rigidity in family interactions and were more likely to display evidence of social information processing biases than control subjects. Overall, these results suggest that the ADHD category includes a heterogeneous group of behaviour disordered boys, and that further study into the cognitive, social, familial, and attributional styles of aggressive and hyperactive boys warrants continued exploration.