Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common
childhood psychological disorders with prevalence estimates ranging from 3%-7% (APA, 2000) and one of the most thoroughly studied child neurocognitive disorders. Children with ADHD have consistently shown executive functioning and processing speed deficits on a variety of measures (Berlin, Bohlin, Nyberg, & Janols, 2004; Geurts, Verté,
Oosterlaan, Roeyers & Sergeant, 2004; Nigg, 1999; Nigg, Blaskey, Huang-Pollock &
Rappley, 2002). The research on executive functioning deficits in other childhood
disorders has been comparatively lacking. There is some research that suggests that
internalizing disorders, such as anxiety and depression, can also have a detrimental effect on certain executive functioning domains (Airaksinen, Larsson, & Forsell, 2005; Christopher, & MacDonald, 2005; Emerson, Mollet, & Harrison, 2005). It is unclear how these internalizing symptoms will impact executive functioning, processing speed and fine motor control in children with ADHD.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether the presence of internalizing
symptoms impacts the ability of children with ADHD to perform executive functioning,
processing speed, and fine motor control tasks. In order to assess this, the predictive
ability of gender, ADHD subtype, parent ratings of anxiety, and parent ratings of
depression were examined for processing speed, working memory, response inhibition,
vigilance and fine motor control tasks. Gender was found to predict differences in
working memory, response inhibition and fine motor control. ADHD subtype was found
to predict differences in response inhibition. Parent ratings of anxiety were found to
interact with ADHD subtype to predict some aspects of vigilance. Parent ratings of
anxiety and of depression were found to predict differences in other aspects of vigilance looking across gender and subtype. Finally, teacher ratings of anxiety were found to predict differences in working memory. / text
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/ETD-UT-2010-08-1580 |
| Date | 02 December 2010 |
| Creators | Christopher, Gina B. |
| Source Sets | University of Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
Page generated in 0.0051 seconds