Perceptions of ADHD Among Diagnosed Children and Their Parents: A Systematic Review Using the Common-Sense Model of Illness Representations

Research on children and parents’ experiences of ADHD has grown in recent years, attracting attention to their subjective perception of ADHD as a disorder. Theoretical accounts of illness perception suggest that it is multi-dimensional, consisting of at least five core constructs (see the common-sense model of illness representations or CSM: Leventhal et al., in: Rachman (ed) Medical psychology, Pergamon, New York, vol 2, pp 7–30, 1980, in: Baum, Taylor, Singer (eds) Handbook of psychology and health: social psychological aspects of health, Earlbaum, Hillsdale, vol 4, pp 219–252, 1984). We suggest that the application of CSM in children/adolescents with ADHD and their parents may play an important role in understanding their coping behavior, treatment adherence, and emotional well-being. A systematic search identified 101 eligible studies that investigated the perception of ADHD among diagnosed children/adolescents and their parents. In general, these studies support the existence of the multiple facets of illness representations proposed by the CSM in both diagnosed youngsters and parents indicating substantial variability among both parents and youngsters on each of these facets. The comprehensive assessment of the representations of ADHD indicates imbalance attention to the different representations of ADHD in the literature; disproportional research attention has been paid to the perceived effectiveness of treatment (i.e., treatment control dimension) compared to other illness representations (e.g., timeline, consequence, and coherence), despite research showing their relevance to treatment adherence among other implications. The review identifies the limitation of existing relevant research, needed foci for future studies, specific testable hypotheses, and potential clinical implications of the multifaceted representations of ADHD among youngsters and carers alike.     

The role of attention in eye-movement awareness

People are unable to accurately report on their own eye movements most of the time. Can this be explained as a lack of attention to the objects we fixate? Here, we elicited eye-movement errors using the classic oculomotor capture paradigm, in which people tend to look at sudden onsets even when they are irrelevant. In the first experiment, participants were able to report their own errors on about a quarter of the trials on which they occurred. The aim of the second experiment was to assess what differentiates errors that are detected from those that are not. Specifically, we estimated the relative influence of two possible factors: how long the onset distractor was fixated (dwell time), and a measure of how much attention was allocated to the onset distractor. Longer dwell times were associated with awareness of the error, but the measure of attention was not. The effect of the distractor identity on target discrimination reaction time was similar whether or not the participant was aware they had fixated the distractor. The results suggest that both attentional and oculomotor capture can occur in the absence of awareness, and have important implications for our understanding of the relationship between attention, eye movements, and awareness.     

The impact of mental health problems and religiosity on African-American girls' HIV-risk

We investigated the relationship between religiosity, mental health problems, and two sexual risk behaviors-condom use and number of partners. Participants were 80 sexually active African American girls in psychiatric care and their caregivers. Results indicated differential relationships, depending on parent versus youth report. Mother's religiosity was positively related to girls' condom use and not to girls' number of partners. Controlling for other predictors in the models, mother's religiosity explained as much as 15% of the variance in girls' condom use. Whereas parent and adolescent reports of girls' depression/anxiety and rule-breaking were positively associated with number of partners, reports of aggression were associated with having fewer partners. Neither parent nor youth reports of girls' mental health problems were associated with condom use. Controlling for other predictors in the models, girls' mental health problems accounted for as much as 31% of the variance in number of partners. Findings underscore the importance of adopting an ecological framework to understand both the risk and promotive factors for sexual risk taking among troubled girls. The roles of specific aspects of psychopathology and religiosity in relation to sexual risk behavior among African American girls in psychiatric care are discussed.     

International publication trends of JABA authorship

The present study addressed international publication trends in JABA authorship between 1970 and 1999. First, we analyzed authorship patterns to identify trends in the appearance of new first authors, unfamiliar authors, and frequent contributors. Second, articles were assigned to either a North American or an international category. The data show a decline in the number of articles by new authors and an increase in the publications of frequent contributors from North America. Trends are shown in comparison to those from the American Journal on Mental Retardation.     

The perception of emotion from body movement in point-light displays of interpersonal dialogue

We examined whether it is possible to identify the emotional content of behaviour from point-light displays where pairs of actors are engaged in interpersonal communication. These actors displayed a series of emotions, which included sadness, anger, joy, disgust, fear, and romantic love. In experiment 1, subjects viewed brief clips of these point-light displays presented the right way up and upside down. In experiment 2, the importance of the interaction between the two figures in the recognition of emotion was examined. Subjects were shown upright versions of (i) the original pairs (dyads), (ii) a single actor (monad), and (iii) a dyad comprising a single actor and his/her mirror image (reflected dyad). In each experiment, the subjects rated the emotional content of the displays by moving a slider along a horizontal scale. All of the emotions received a rating for every clip. In experiment 1, when the displays were upright, the correct emotions were identified in each case except disgust; but, when the displays were inverted, performance was significantly diminished for some emotions. In experiment 2, the recognition of love and joy was impaired by the absence of the acting partner, and the recognition of sadness, joy, and fear was impaired in the non-veridical (mirror image) displays. These findings both support and extend previous research by showing that biological motion is sufficient for the perception of emotion, although inversion affects performance. Moreover, emotion perception from biological motion can be affected by the veridical or non-veridical social context within the displays.