ADHD Research News
Reprinted with permission of Journal of Attention
DisordersThis column
contains abstracts of recent research studies
provided by Sam
Goldstein, Ph.D., University of Utah Medical School
and editor of the Journal of Attention
Disorders
Button, T.M., Thapar, A., & McGuffin, P. (2005).
Relationship between anti-social behavior, ADHD and
maternal pre-natal smoking. British Journal of
Psychiatry, 187, 155-160.
Maternal ratings of over 2,000 twin pairs, five to
eighteen years of age, were obtained from the
Cardiff Study of all Wales and northwest England
twins. Measures included anti-social items from the
Rutter Scale and items from the ADHD Rating Scale.
Using structural equation modeling the best fitting
model for the data indicated that both ADHD and
anti-social behavior have substantial genetic and
moderate non-shared environmental influence.
Maternal smoking during pregnancy made a small but
significant contribution to the prediction of
anti-social behavior and ADHD (3% and 2%
respectively). The model demonstrated that these
effects were independent of one another.
Duetscher, B., & Fewel, R.R. (2005). Early
predictors of ADHD and school difficulties in low
birth weight, premature children. Topics in Early
Childhood Special Education, 25, 71-79.
These authors explored whether specific behaviors
observed in video taped footage of thirty, one
month-old, low birth weight children could be used
to predict ADHD diagnosis and school problems at
eight years of age. Eight minute video taped play
interactions of 571 low birth weight children and
their mothers were coded using the ADHD
Observational Rating Scale. Outcome measures
included physician diagnosis of ADHD, special
education services in school and grade retention.
Logistic regression demonstrated that inattention,
over activity and impulsivity significantly
predicted later physician diagnosis and school
difficulties. However, only the inattentiveness
factor made a significant contribution. This factor
included acting before thinking, rushing, being
careless, changing activities, being easily
distracted, not following directions, difficulty
staying on task and short attention span. The
inattentive factor significantly differentiated
children with no school difficulties or physician
diagnosis from those with both.
