A critical appraisal of the role of neuropsychological deficits in preschool ADHD

The present study aimed at improving our understanding of the role of neuropsychological deficits in preschool Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The study included 52 children in the ADHD group and 72 controls (age 4–6 years). Both laboratory measures and teacher reports of executive deficits (i.e., working memory, inhibition, and shifting), delay-related behaviors (i.e., the preference for minimizing delay), and emotional functions (i.e., emotion recognition and regulation) were included. Variable-oriented analyses were complemented with person-oriented analyses (i.e., identifying the proportion of patients considered impaired). Results showed that the ADHD group differed from controls with regard to all measures of executive functioning and most measures of delay-related behaviors, but few differences were found for emotional functioning. A substantial subgroup (23%) of children with ADHD did not have a neuropsychological deficit in any domain. There were subgroups with executive or delay-related deficits only, but no pure emotional subgroup. The overlap between different neuropsychological deficits was much larger when teacher reports were used as opposed to laboratory measures. Regarding functional impairments, large mean differences were found between the ADHD group and controls. However, neuropsychological deficits were not able to explain individual variations in daily life functioning among children with ADHD. In conclusion, the present study identified some important methodological and theoretical issues regarding the role of neuropsychological functioning in preschool ADHD.     

Training and transfer effects of executive functions in preschool children

Executive functions, including working memory and inhibition, are of central importance to much of human behavior. Interventions intended to improve executive functions might therefore serve an important purpose. Previous studies show that working memory can be improved by training, but it is unknown if this also holds for inhibition, and whether it is possible to train executive functions in preschoolers. In the present study, preschool children received computerized training of either visuo‐spatial working memory or inhibition for 5 weeks. An active control group played commercially available computer games, and a passive control group took part in only pre‐ and posttesting. Children trained on working memory improved significantly on trained tasks; they showed training effects on non‐trained tests of spatial and verbal working memory, as well as transfer effects to attention. Children trained on inhibition showed a significant improvement over time on two out of three trained task paradigms, but no significant improvements relative to the control groups on tasks measuring working memory or attention. In neither of the two interventions were there effects on non‐trained inhibitory tasks. The results suggest that working memory training can have significant effects also among preschool children. The finding that inhibition could not be improved by either one of the two training programs might be due to the particular training program used in the present study or possibly indicate that executive functions differ in how easily they can be improved by training, which in turn might relate to differences in their underlying psychological and neural processes.     

Graphometric variables of one's signature: II. Correlations with measures of perception, cognitive function, and personality

This study focused on interrelations between graphometric variables of the signature and measures of perception, cognitive function, and personality. Signatures from a sample of psychiatric and somatic outpatients (N = 205) were analyzed into 23 graphometric variables and correlated with tests of IQ, cognitive and perceptual function, and personality. The results of a factor analysis of the graphometric, perceptual, and cognitive variables were very much like results from previous studies. Relationships with the graphometric variables can be described in five categories of intelligence, psychomotility, flexibility and speed of closure, and personality. Graphometric signs of Extraversion and Neuroticism were identified, and the two capitals in the signature indicated different psychological meanings. Measurements of the signature offered important personality information.     

Disorganized Attachment and Inhibitory Capacity: Predicting Externalizing Problem Behaviors

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether attachment insecurity, focusing on disorganized attachment, and the executive function (EF) component of inhibition, assessed at age 5, were longitudinally related to general externalizing problem behaviors as well as to specific symptoms of ADHD and Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and callous-unemotional (CU) traits. General externalizing problem behaviors were also measured at age 5 to allow for a developmental analysis. Outcome variables were rated by parents and teachers. The sample consisted of 65 children with an oversampling of children with high levels of externalizing behaviors. Attachment was evaluated using a story stem attachment doll play procedure. Inhibition was measured using four different tasks. The results showed that both disorganized attachment and poor inhibition were longitudinally related to all outcome variables. Controlling for initial level of externalizing problem behavior, poor inhibition predicted ADHD symptoms and externalizing problem behaviors, independent of disorganized attachment, whereas for ASD symptoms no predictive relations remained. Disorganized attachment independently predicted CU traits.     

ADHD Symptoms and Attachment Representations: Considering the Role of Conduct Problems,Cognitive Deficits and Narrative Responses in Non-Attachment-Related Story Stems

The overall aim of the present study was to investigate ADHD symptoms in relation to attachment representations. We used both attachment- and non-attachment-related story stems, which allowed us to investigate whether problems with narrative production can explain the relation between ADHD symptoms and attachment representations. We also investigated the role of cognitive deficits and conduct problems in these relations. The sample consisted of 89 children (27 % girls) between 6 and 10 years old, with an oversampling of children with high levels of ADHD symptoms. ADHD symptoms and conduct problems were rated by parents and teachers. Cognitive functioning was investigated using laboratory tests of inhibition, working memory and sustained attention. Attachment representations were coded as secure, organized insecure and disorganized categories. Narrative responses to non-attachment-related story stems were coded for incoherence and negative content. Results showed that children in the disorganized attachment category had significantly higher levels of ADHD symptoms compared to those in the secure category. Both ADHD symptoms and disorganized attachment were related to incoherence and negative content. Attachment representations were not associated with ADHD symptoms when controlling for negative content in response to non-attachment-related story stems. These results suggest that the associations between attachment security and ADHD are yet to be fully understood. Importantly, a propensity to envisage negative events seems to characterize children with high levels of ADHD symptoms.     

Examining the relation between ratings of executive functioning and academic achievement: Findings from a cross-cultural study

The present study investigated the relation between academic performance and ratings of executive functioning in children aged 6–11 from four countries: Sweden, Spain, Iran, and China. Ratings of executive functioning were made by both parents and teachers using the Childhood Executive Functioning Inventory (CHEXI). The results showed that the Chinese sample was generally rated as having more executive deficits compared to the other samples. The finding that executive functioning deficits are exacerbated in China is most likely the result of cultural biases. Boys were generally rated as having poorer executive functioning compared to girls, except in Iran where parents, but not teachers, rated girls as having poorer executive functioning compared to boys. However, this opposite pattern of results found for Iran is not likely to reflect true gender differences in executive functioning. Despite some differences in the levels of executive functioning across countries, both the inhibition and working memory subscales of the CHEXI were related to academic achievement in all four countries, except for CHEXI parent ratings in China. Altogether, the results indicate that the CHEXI may be used as a screening measure for early academic difficulties, although cultural biases clearly have to be taken into consideration.     

Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS). Psychometrics and Norms of the Swedish Version

Abstract

The Swedish version of the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) was examined for reliability, validity and other psychometric characteristics, including non-clinical norms. Parallelism between the DAS-A and DAS-B versions, reliability, test-retest stability and validity of the DAS-A as a measure of depressive cognitive content were supported in lithium-treated euthymic patients with unipolar depressive disorder and healthy controls. Other psychometric properties of the DAS-A were investigated in a randomly selected normal sample (n = 498) of the population between 20 and 70 years of age in a Swedish county. The results were similar to those of earlier normative studies of the scale. A cumulative percentage normative scale of the DAS-A scores is presented.     

Non-pharmaceutical interventions to limit the transmission of a pandemic virus: the need for complementary programs to address children's diverse needs

Non-pharmaceutical interventions, including social distancing, quarantine, and isolation, are a potentially attractive means to limit the transmission of a pandemic virus. Many of these interventions are directed at children given children's disproportionate role in amplifying epidemics. The ethics of non-pharmaceutical interventions can be analyzed using Nancy Kass' ethics framework for public health. Such an analysis highlights the limited data supporting these interventions' effectiveness. It also suggests the framework itself needs to be expanded to consider harms other than constraints on liberty and to consider affirmative programs to mitigate these broader harms.