Maternal positive parenting style is associated with better functioning in hyperactive/inattentive preschool children

Many preschoolers are highly inattentive, impulsive, and hyperactive; but only some are impaired in their functioning. Yet factors leading to functional impairment, above and beyond the severity of inattentive and hyperactive symptoms, have not been systematically examined. This study examined a model suggesting that after controlling for attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptom severity, child temperament is uniquely associated with parenting stress; that parenting stress affects parenting style, above and beyond child characteristics; that parenting style is related to the level of child impairment, above and beyond the effects of child symptoms, temperament, and parenting stress; and finally that parenting style moderates the relationship between ADHD symptom severity and child functioning. Child measures included parent‐ and teacher‐rated ADHD symptom severity, teacher‐rated temperament, and clinician‐rated functioning in a sample of 138 inattentive/hyperactive preschoolers. Maternal self‐ratings of parenting style and parenting stress were obtained. Analyses indicated that, after controlling for symptom severity, child temperament was related to maternal parenting stress, which was additionally related to both maternal parenting style and child functioning. Maternal positive parenting style moderated the relationship between ADHD symptom severity and child impairment, indicating that a positive parenting style plays a protective role in the functioning of hyperactive/inattentive preschoolers. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Response-specific slowing in older age revealed through differential stimulus and response effects on P300 latency and reaction time

Older age produces numerous changes in cognitive processes, including slowing in the rate of mental processing speed. There has been controversy over the past three decades about whether this slowing is generalized or process-specific. A growing literature indicates that it is process-specific and suggests it is most dramatic at the interface where a stimulus input is translated into a response output. We tested this hypothesis using a task in which young and older adult males made either compatible or incompatible responses to the word LEFT or RIGHT shown briefly and variously located in a 4 row × 6 column matrix surrounded by # signs or by letters chosen randomly from the sets A-G or A-Z. Processing speed was measured using P300 latency and reaction time. Experimental effects on these two measures provided support for the hypothesis in revealing that stimulus identification processes were preserved, whereas processes related to translating a stimulus input into a designated response output and then selecting that response were compromised in the elderly.     

Inhibition and working memory in young preschool children with symptoms of ADHD and/or oppositional-defiant disorder

Background: Early symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) are associated with deficits in cognitive self-regulatory processes or executive functions (EF)s. However, the hypothesis that neurocognitive deficits underlying the two disorders are already evident during early preschool years still has limited empirical support. The present study investigated associations between symptoms of ADHD and/or ODD and two core EFs, inhibition and working memory, in a large nonclinical sample of 3-year old children. Method: Participants were 1045 children (554 boys, age 37–47 months), recruited from the population based Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Relations between behavioral symptoms and measures of inhibition and working memory were studied both categorically and dimensionally. Results: Children with co-occurring symptoms of ADHD and ODD performed at a significantly lower level than typically developing children in 4 out of 5 EF measures. Symptoms of ADHD, both alone and in combination with ODD, were associated with reduced performance on tests of inhibition in the group comparisons. Dimensional analyses showed that performance within both EF domains contributed to variance primarily in ADHD symptom load. The associations between test results and behavioral symptoms remained significant after gender and verbal skills had been controlled. Conclusion: Young preschoolers show the same pattern of relations between EF and behavioral symptoms of ADHD and/or ODD as previously described in older children diagnosed with ADHD and/or ODD. Effect sizes were generally small, indicating that measures of EF have limited clinical utility at this stage in development.     

Genetic and environmental contributions to the associations between intraindividual variability in reaction time and cognitive function

Intraindividual variability (IIV) in reaction time has been related to cognitive decline, but questions remain about the nature of this relationship. Mean and range in movement and decision time for simple reaction time were available from 241 individuals aged 51–86 years at the fifth testing wave of the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging. Cognitive performance on four factors was also available: verbal, spatial, memory, and speed. Analyses indicated that range in reaction time could be used as an indicator of IIV. Heritability estimates were 35% for mean reaction and 20% for range in reaction. Multivariate analysis indicated that the genetic variance on the memory, speed, and spatial factors is shared with genetic variance for mean or range in reaction time. IIV shares significant genetic variance with fluid ability in late adulthood, over and above and genetic variance shared with mean reaction time.     

Relationship between reaction time variability and motor skill development in ADHD

Slower and more variable reaction times to computerized tasks have been documented in children diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Recent research supports a role for attentional lapses in generating abnormally variable and slow responses. However, given the association between ADHD and impairments in motor control, we hypothesized that slower or more variable reaction times might also correlate with motor development. The aim of this case-control study was to explore the relationship between motor function, reaction speed and variability, and ADHD. After comprehensive educational and clinical assessments, motor skill development was evaluated in 35 children ages 9 to 14 (19 with ADHD) using the Physical and Neurological Examination for Subtle Signs (PANESS) test battery. Finger-sequencing speed and variability were quantified with goniometers. Reaction times were measured with 20 trials each of computerized simple and choice (binary) tasks. Compared to healthy controls, children with ADHD had slower and more variable reaction times, and these findings correlated with impaired motor development (PANESS) and slow and variable finger sequencing (goniometers). Further studies of motor development in ADHD may identify factors influencing speed and variability of reaction times.     

Screen time in 36-month-olds at increased likelihood for ASD and ADHD

We examined the relationship between video-based media viewing (screen time), behavioral outcomes, and language development in 120 36-month-old children with a family history of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or no family history of either condition. Participants were classified into one of three diagnostic groups: ASD (n = 20), ADHD Concerns (children with elevated ADHD symptoms; n = 14), or Comparison (n = 86). Children in the ADHD Concerns group spent more time viewing screen media than Comparison children. Increased screen time was associated with lower receptive and expressive language scores across groups. Future longitudinal studies are needed to determine the direction of effects and causality.     

The interplay among temperament,neuropsychological abilities,and global functioning in young hyperactive/inattentive children

Cognition and emotion have been shown to interact and influence psychological functioning. However, to date these interactions have only been examined cross‐sectionally among inattentive and/or hyperactive/impulsive children. This study investigated the moderating effects of neuropsychological functioning at age 3–4 years on the relation between negative emotionality at age 3–4 years and global functioning 1 year later, at age 4–5 years. Hyperactive/inattentive (H/I; n = 114) preschoolers entered the study (BL: baseline) and were seen again 1 year later (F1). Children's BL scores on a neuropsychological test (NEPSY) and their temperament as rated by parents (Child Behavior Questionnaire) and teachers (Temperament Assessment Battery for Children‐Revised) were obtained, as were clinicians’ ratings of their global functioning (Children's Global Assessment Scale) at F1. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed that BL temperament variables accounted for significant variance in F1 Global Functioning. Significant interactions indicated that higher Verbal Executive abilities were associated with better child functioning when parent‐rated Effortful Control was high, but not when Effortful Control was low. Additionally, high levels of Nonverbal Executive skills were associated with higher child global functioning when both parent‐ and teacher‐rated negative affect was low, but not when negative affect was high.     

Event rate and reaction time performance in ADHD: Testing predictions from the state regulation deficit hypothesis using an ex-Gaussian model

According to the state regulation deficit (SRD) account, ADHD is associated with a problem using effort to maintain an optimal activation state under demanding task settings such as very fast or very slow event rates. This leads to a prediction of disrupted performance at event rate extremes reflected in higher Gaussian response variability that is a putative marker of activation during motor preparation. In the current study, we tested this hypothesis using ex-Gaussian modeling, which distinguishes Gaussian from non-Gaussian variability. Twenty-five children with ADHD and 29 typically developing controls performed a simple Go/No-Go task under four different event-rate conditions. There was an accentuated quadratic relationship between event rate and Gaussian variability in the ADHD group compared to the controls. The children with ADHD had greater Gaussian variability at very fast and very slow event rates but not at moderate event rates. The results provide evidence for the SRD account of ADHD. However, given that this effect did not explain all group differences (some of which were independent of event rate) other cognitive and/or motivational processes are also likely implicated in ADHD performance deficits.     

Reaction time and established risk factors for total and cardiovascular disease mortality: Comparison of effect estimates in the follow-up of a large, UK-wide, general-population based survey

Higher cognitive function is associated with faster choice reaction time (CRT), and both are associated with a reduced risk of mortality from all-causes and cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, comparison of the predictive capacity of CRT, an emerging risk factor, with that for established ‘classic’ risk factors for mortality, such as smoking, hypertension or obesity, is lacking. The purpose of this study was to compare the relative impact of CRT with a range of established risk factors for all-cause and CVD mortality. The UK Health and Lifestyle Survey (HALS) is a national sample survey of adults in England, Scotland, and Wales. In 1984/85, data on lifestyle factors, socioeconomic status, and health were collected for 9003 individuals. CRT data were available for 7414 individuals. With different predictor variables having differing coding structures, we used the relative index of inequality (RII) to explore the relation of a range of risk factors with mortality by computing the risk in disadvantaged (high risk; e.g., smokers) relative to advantaged (low risk; e.g., non-smokers) persons. During an average of 20 years of follow-up, there were 1289 deaths (568 ascribed to CVD). In age- and sex-adjusted models in which all-cause mortality was the outcome of interest, CRT mean (RII = 2.57, 95% CI = 1.98, 3.33) was the second most important predictor of death after smoking (RII = 3.03, 95% CI = 2.45, 3.75). For death from CVD, CRT mean (RII = 2.31, 95% CI = 1.55, 3.43) was again the second most important risk factor for death, behind systolic blood pressure (RII = 4.37, 95% CI = 3.03, 6.29). These analyses suggest that CRT, a moderately high correlate of intelligence, is an important risk factor for death from all-causes and CVD.     

Relating lab to life: Decrements in attention over time predict math productivity among children with ADHD

A child’s ability to sustain attention over time (AOT) is critical in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), yet no prior work has examined the extent to which a child’s decrement in AOT on laboratory tasks relates to clinically-relevant behavior. The goal of this study is to provide initial evidence for the criterion validity of laboratory assessments of AOT. A total of 20 children with ADHD (7–12 years of age) who were enrolled in a summer treatment program completed two lab attention tasks (a continuous performance task and a self-paced choice discrimination task) and math seatwork. Analyses focused on relations between attention task parameters and math productivity. Individual differences in overall attention (OA) measures (averaged across time) accounted for 23% of the variance in math productivity, supporting the criterion validity of lab measures of attention. The criterion validity was enhanced by consideration of changes in AOT. Performance on all laboratory attention measures deteriorated as time-on-task increased, and individual differences in the decrement in AOT accounted for 40% of the variance in math productivity. The only variable to uniquely predict math productivity was from the self-paced choice discrimination task. This study suggests that attention tasks in the lab do predict a clinically-relevant target behavior in children with ADHD, supporting their use as a means to study attention processes in a controlled environment. Furthermore, this prediction is improved when attention is examined as a function of time-on-task and when the attentional demands are consistent between lab and life contexts.     

Emotional stimuli facilitate time perception in children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of different emotional stimuli (neutral, positive, and negative) on time perception in children with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and normal children in dual‐task form. Five hundred and ninety‐nine students from primary schools were randomly selected. The Conner's Teacher Rating Scale (CTRS) questionnaire was completed by teachers. A total of 100 children with a score above the cut‐off point for the CTRS were further assessed using the Child Symptom Inventory‐4 (CSI‐4). A total of 34 children with ADHD and 31 controls completed an emotional time discrimination task in two blocks of 1000 and 2000 ms duration. Children were asked to compare three image groups: neutral with neutral, neutral with positive, and neutral with negative images. Children with ADHD had significantly better performance in the emotional time discrimination task across all conditions when compared with controls: On average, discrimination thresholds were approximately 35 ms shorter for the children with ADHD. Our results indicate that children with ADHD have higher sensitivity to time relative to controls in a situation in which they must distribute resources between temporal and emotional processing. On the basis of the interference effect and the working memory capacity hypothesis, this dividing of attention causes a decrease of time accuracy in normal children.     

The relationship between the shape of the mental number line and familiarity with numbers in 5- to 9-year old children: evidence for a segmented linear model

This experiment aimed to expand previous findings on the development of mental number representation. We tested the hypothesis that children's familiarity with numbers is directly reflected by the shape of their mental number line. This mental number line was expected to be linear as long as numbers lay within the range of numbers children were familiar with. Five- to 9-year-olds (N=78) estimated the positions of numbers on an external number line and additionally completed a counting assessment mirroring their familiarity with numbers. A segmented regression model consisting of two linear segments described number line estimations significantly better than a logarithmic or a simple linear model. Moreover, the change point between the two linear segments, indicating a change of discriminability between numbers, was significantly correlated with children's familiar number range. Findings are discussed in terms of the accumulator model, assuming a linear mental representation with scalar variability.