This multi-method study provides detailed information about the friendships of 87 children with ADHD (77.0% boys) and 46 comparison children (73.9% boys) between the ages of 7 and 13. The methods used in the study included parent and teacher ratings, self-report measures, and direct observation of friends’ dyadic behaviours in three structured analogue tasks. Results indicated that, in contrast with comparison children, children with ADHD had friends with high levels of ADHD and oppositional symptoms; they perceived fewer positive features and more negative features, and were less satisfied in their friendships. Observational data indicated that children with ADHD performed both more legal and more illegal manoeuvres than comparison children in a fast-paced competitive game. While negotiating with their friends, children with ADHD made more insensitive and self-centred proposals than comparison children. In dyads consisting of one child with ADHD and one typically developing child, children with ADHD were often more controlling than their non-diagnosed friends. Globally, these results were robust and did not seem to be affected by age differences, ADHD subtypes, comorbidities, and medication status. Given the increased recognition of ADHD in adolescence and adulthood as well as the fact that negative peer reputation in childhood very strongly predicts mental-health status by early adulthood, this research may lead to the discovery of meaningful ways to help people with ADHD achieve improved mental health and happiness over their lifespan.

The aim of this thesis is to examine objective laboratory measures of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adult persons and to develop measures for diagnosis and treatment using a psychometric instrument called the Quantified Behavior Test Plus. The instrument objectively quantifies cardinal symptom manifestations in adult ADHD using motion tracking devices and continuous performance testing. Paper I-IV suggest that ADHD predisposes adult persons to perform poorer on continuous performance tasks and to have higher levels of motor activity while performing these tasks as compared to other clinical as well as non-clinical groups. Performance by adults with ADHD is normalized following stimulant treatment which implicates therapeutic effects and measures of response to treatment and remission for ADHD is suggested. Paper I concludes that the psychometric instrument needs to be calibrated with regard to adult ADHD and emphasizes the importance of a composite measure for the disorder. Paper II generates two new measures, the Weighed Core Symptom scale (WCS) - a composite measure of adult ADHD ranging from 0 to 100, and Prediction of ADHD (PADHD) - a categorical variable of the diagnostic status with good predictive power. A majority of participants with ADHD has low points on WCS (indicating high levels of symptoms) and a majority of non-ADHD normative participants has high points on WCS (indicating low levels of symptoms). Paper III examines WCS and PADHD among complex clinical groups with shared symptoms vis-à-vis ADHD. Here, findings from Paper II are replicated since participants with ADHD present the highest level of global symptoms, followed by participants with bipolar II disorder and borderline personality disorder, participant with diconfirmed ADHD and finally, non-clinical participants has the lowest level of global symptoms. In Paper IV, the measures are proposed as indications of response to treatment and remission after titration with stimulant treatment and WCS indicates response to small changes in dose level. The major findings of the present thesis may be summarized as the construction of two new objective measures for ADHD in adult persons with practical implications for diagnosis and treatment. Hyperactivity is the most specific marker of ADHD in both men and women, followed by the cognitive markers of inattention and impulsivity. The composite measure, WCS, quantifies the global amount of ADHD symptoms and provides the most sensitive measure for the disorder. PADHD and WCS may not replace a thorough neuropsychiatric assessment and further studies promoting diagnostic subtype stratification is suggested. Future studies may want to consider these measures in outcome-based investigations of treatment efficacy as well as in the study of neuropsychological endophenotypes. Practical implications include clinical strategies to enhance objectivity during assessment as well as optimizing beneficial effects of treatment and attaining remission.

Research indicates a relationship between prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) and attention levels in children. Studies with non-human primates suggest that both exposure to PNMS and the timing of a stressor during pregnancy are associated with greater attention problems in offspring; however, this has not been sufficiently tested in humans because of methodological constraints. We explored the relationship between objective and subjective measures of PNMS for 85 women who were pregnant during the 1998 Quebec Ice Storm and attention levels in their 5.5 year-old children, while controlling for socioeconomic status, child's sex, and maternal state anxiety. As a group, children in the study displayed significantly less attentive behaviour compared to a standardized norm. Boys in this group were significantly less attentive than girls. Objective PNMS exposure during 1st trimester correlated positively with attention problems in the children, accounting for 15.2% of the variance in attention levels as rated by Kindergarten teachers. In a behavioural task to detect sustained attention difficulties and Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms, children exposed during the 3rd trimester obtained significantly worse scores compared to children exposed in other trimesters. However, in this case, objective and subjective PNMS appeared to act as protective factors, raising the possibility of the presence of another unknown mechanism that negatively affected the attention variables.

This thesis effects a (dis)ordered look as a disordered construct. A Thesis by Publication format has been employed, where instead of a traditional linear argument: A + B = Conclusion, this work follows a cartographical route - instead of traditional thesis chapters, there are scholarly journal articles. Whilst related, these papers each concentrate on different threads of the problem that we currently call &quotAttention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder". Connected by short linking summaries, they constitute a cartographic survey utilising Foucault's (1977; 2003b) notion of a discursive/technological grid to examine &quotADHD" as a discursive formation and schooling as a system of formation of &quotdisorderly" objects.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is comorbid with a range of other disorders in clinical and community samples, including anxiety disorders. The outcomes of the Multimodal Treatment Studies of ADHD (MTA Cooperative Group, 1999) highlight the importance of this comorbidity, as children with anxiety responded differently to treatments than did children with ADHD only. At present there are few tested theoretical explanations of the etiological processes and developmental trajectories associated with their co-occurrence. The aim of this research was to put forward and examine different explanations for the comorbidity of these two disorders in children according to the framework provided by Lilienfeld (2003). This was achieved by examining the covariation of ADHD symptoms and anxiety symptoms in a community sample of 499 children aged 8-13. Dimensional assessments of psychopathology were conducted via self-report questionnaires given to children, parents and teachers. The results were analysed via structural equation modelling approaches using AMOS (Arbuckle, 2003). Consistent with the hypotheses, positive associations at Time 1 between ADHD and anxiety symptoms were linked with inattention symptoms and were particularly pronounced for girls. The concurrent positive associations observed at each time period could not be completely accounted for by overlapping symptoms across measures or by method covariance explanations. The link between ADHD and anxiety symptoms could be explained by a common factor in reporting whereby ADHD and anxiety symptoms were both associated with noncompliance and negative affect for parents' reports, and negative affect for children???s' reports. Despite the concurrent associations, there was no support for the hypothesis that ADHD symptoms predicted the development of anxiety symptoms over time, nor the alternative hypothesis that anxiety symptoms predicted the development of ADHD symptoms over time, when the stability of symptoms across time was taken into account. It was concluded that ADHD symptoms (particularly inattention) and anxiety symptoms are covarying phenomena that are linked with common features of an irritable temperament and disruptive behaviour. Future research should investigate the role of these common factors in treatment outcome and cognitive research, which has previously found differences between ADHD children with and without anxiety.

Masters of Philosophy / In today's society, the misdiagnosis of school-age children with the neurological condition Child Absence Epilepsy (CAE) as having Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has a low profile. This may be because of the lack of popular awareness of CAE. The increasing social salience towards the neuropsychological condition of ADHD places these children at risk of experiencing high psychosocial effects. Many symptoms of CAE are also associated with ADHD. However if the condition is misdiagnosed as ADHD, the child with CAE is often mistreated, both medically and socially until the correct diagnosis is made. There is little research available on the psychosocial effects of the misdiagnosis of epilepsy as ADHD, and none available relating to CAE. This research study uses case study methodology to focus on how children with CAE are psychosocially affected at the time of the misdiagnosis of ADHD and subsequently. It also explores the experiences of their parents. An in-depth interview method was adopted to gather the personal recollections of these effects directly from the ten participants in this study. The participants were found with the assistance of Epilepsy Australia and constituted one adolescent from five different families who had experienced the sequence of events and effects under investigation, and a parent (guardian) who cared for these children during this period. The findings of this research indicate that as a result of labelling, these children were misjudged in their communities, leaving strong psychosocial effects on each of the child participants who had previously been misdiagnosed with ADHD. These effects include low self-esteem, insecurity and fear experienced most often in the company of peers. As a result, when reaching adulthood, most of these participants chose to isolate themselves from social contact whenever possible. The findings offer a basis for further research in the area.

Masters of Philosophy / In today's society, the misdiagnosis of school-age children with the neurological condition Child Absence Epilepsy (CAE) as having Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has a low profile. This may be because of the lack of popular awareness of CAE. The increasing social salience towards the neuropsychological condition of ADHD places these children at risk of experiencing high psychosocial effects. Many symptoms of CAE are also associated with ADHD. However if the condition is misdiagnosed as ADHD, the child with CAE is often mistreated, both medically and socially until the correct diagnosis is made. There is little research available on the psychosocial effects of the misdiagnosis of epilepsy as ADHD, and none available relating to CAE. This research study uses case study methodology to focus on how children with CAE are psychosocially affected at the time of the misdiagnosis of ADHD and subsequently. It also explores the experiences of their parents. An in-depth interview method was adopted to gather the personal recollections of these effects directly from the ten participants in this study. The participants were found with the assistance of Epilepsy Australia and constituted one adolescent from five different families who had experienced the sequence of events and effects under investigation, and a parent (guardian) who cared for these children during this period. The findings of this research indicate that as a result of labelling, these children were misjudged in their communities, leaving strong psychosocial effects on each of the child participants who had previously been misdiagnosed with ADHD. These effects include low self-esteem, insecurity and fear experienced most often in the company of peers. As a result, when reaching adulthood, most of these participants chose to isolate themselves from social contact whenever possible. The findings offer a basis for further research in the area.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2008. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 60 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 41-49).

Thesis (MSD (Play Therapy))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.