Ecological Validity of Clinic-Based Actigraphy for Assessing Hyperactivity in Clinically Evaluated Children with and without ADHD.

Though often conflated with face validity, ecological validity refers to the degree that a test or measure predicts real-world behavior/functioning. The current study leveraged two independent samples to provide a critical evaluation of the extent to which clinic-based actigraphy demonstrates ecological validity evidence relative to parent- and teacher-reported hyperactivity ratings. Further, across both samples we evaluated the extent to which the ecological validity evidence for these mechanical measures of hyperactivity varies as a function of the task children are completing while their movement is assessed objectively (low vs.

Associations between anxiety and working memory components in clinically evaluated children with and without ADHD.

Theoretical models describe working memory difficulties as risk factors and/or outcomes of anxiety in children, but the current evidence base is surprisingly mixed. Understanding the nature of the working memory/anxiety relation is complicated by the multi-component nature of each of these constructs. Consideration of the co-occurrence of anxiety with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is also imperative given that ADHD is associated with large magnitude working memory impairments.

Social Skill Profiles in ADHD and Comorbid Disorders.

Background: Many children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) demonstrate impairment in social skills. However, ADHD rarely occurs in isolation, with approximately one-third of children with ADHD having one additional disorder, and another third having two or three comorbidities. Few studies have considered the global and specific patterns of social skill performance based on comorbidity status.

Does Stimulant Medication Status Moderate the Association Between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Symptoms and Rumination?

Previous research suggests that college students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms are at risk for experiencing ruminative thinking. Although research has shown that stimulant medications reduce ADHD symptoms, no research has looked at whether stimulant medication moderates the association between ADHD symptoms and rumination. Given this gap in the literature, the current study examined whether stimulant medication status moderates the association between ADHD symptoms and rumination.

Examining the roles of working memory and trait anxiety on math achievement in children with ADHD.

Objective: Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) demonstrate deficits across academic domains including underachievement in math. Proposed models of math skill development suggest that math difficulties may be associated with both neurocognitive (e.g.

Is hyperactivity in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) a functional response to demands on specific executive functions or cognitive demands in general?

Objective: Hyperactivity is a core and impairing deficit in the clinical model of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the extent to which hyperactivity in ADHD is evoked by cognitively challenging tasks in general or by demands on specific executive functions remains unclear.

Method: A clinically evaluated and carefully phenotyped community-referred sample of 184 children ages 8-13 (M = 10.

Executive function deficits in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder.

Executive function deficits have been reported in both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, little is known regarding which, if any, of these impairments are unique vs. shared in children with ADHD versus ASD.

The role of working memory and organizational skills in academic functioning for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Objective: Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) exhibit difficulties with organizational skills such as task planning, managing materials, and organizing activities that have downstream consequences on academic functioning. At the same time, deficits in working memory have been linked with both the organizational skills difficulties and academic underachievement and underperformance observed in children with ADHD and have been hypothesized to account for the link between organizational and academic functioning. However, the extent to which working memory and organizational skills independently versus jointly contribute to ADHD-related academic difficulties remains unclear.

Working memory and inhibitory control deficits in children with ADHD: an experimental evaluation of competing model predictions.

Introduction: Children with ADHD demonstrate difficulties on many different neuropsychological tests. However, it remains unclear whether this pattern reflects a large number of distinct deficits or a small number of deficit(s) that broadly impact test performance. The current study is among the first experiments to systematically manipulate demands on both working memory and inhibition, with implications for competing conceptual models of ADHD pathogenesis.

Social functioning in children with ADHD: an examination of inhibition, self-control, and working memory as potential mediators.

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience a host of social problems, in addition to significant impairments in behavioral inhibition, working memory, and self-control. Behavioral inhibition and working memory difficulties have been linked with social functioning deficits, but to date, most studies have examined these neurocognitive problems either in isolation or as an aggregate measure in relation to social problems, and none has considered the role of self-control. Thus, it remains unclear whether all of these executive functions are linked with social problems or if the link can be more parsimoniously explained by construct overlap.

Working memory and math skills in children with and without ADHD.

Objective: Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) frequently demonstrate deficits in working memory and in multiple domains of math skills, including underdeveloped problem-solving and computation skills. The Baddeley model of working memory posits a multicomponent system, including a domain-general central executive and two domain-specific subsystems-phonological short-term memory and visuospatial short-term memory. Extant literature indicates a strong link between neurocognitive deficits in working/short-term memory and math skills; however, the extent to which each component of working/short-term memory may account for this relation is unclear.

Evaluating the Simple View of Reading for Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

The 'simple view of reading' is an influential model of reading comprehension which asserts that children's reading comprehension performance can be explained entirely by their decoding and language comprehension skills. Children with ADHD often exhibit difficulty across all three of these reading domains on standardized achievement tests, yet it is unclear whether the simple view of reading is sufficient to explain reading comprehension performance for these children. The current study was the first to use multiple indicators and latent estimates to examine the veracity of key predictions from the simple view of reading in a clinically-evaluated sample of 250 children with and without ADHD (ages 8-13, M=10.

A preliminary 'shortlist' of individual, family, and social-community assets to promote resilience in pediatric ADHD.

Background: Understanding factors that promote resilience in pediatric ADHD is important though highly understudied.

Aims: The current study sought to provide a preliminary 'shortlist' of key individual, family, and social-community assets among children with ADHD.

Methods And Procedures: The study included well-characterized, clinically-evaluated samples of children with (n=108) and without ADHD (n=98) ages 8-13 years (M=10.

Central executive training for ADHD: Impact on organizational skills at home and school. A randomized controlled trial.

Objective: The current randomized controlled trial (RCT) was the first to examine the benefits of central executive training (CET, which trains the components of working memory [WM]) for reducing organizational skills difficulties relative to a carefully matched neurocognitive training intervention (inhibitory control training [ICT]).

Method: A carefully phenotyped sample of 73 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity-impulsivity disorder (ADHD; ages 8-13, = 10.15, = 1.

ADHD, chronotype, and circadian preference in a multi-site sample of college students.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and an evening chronotype are both common among college students, and there is growing interest in understanding the possible link between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and circadian function. However, mixed findings have been reported, and many of the existing studies have used small samples that were unable to examine chronotype across attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder presentations. Participants were 4751 students (73% female; 80% White), aged 18-29 years (M = 19.

Neurocognition in children with cognitive disengagement syndrome: accurate but slow.

Cognitive disengagement syndrome (CDS), previously termed sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT), is characterized by excessive daydreaming, mental confusion, and slowed behavior or thinking. Prior research has found inconsistent relations between CDS and neurocognition, though most studies have used small or ADHD-defined samples, non-optimal measures of CDS, and/or examined limited neurocognitive domains. Accordingly, this study examined the association of parent- and teacher-reported CDS symptoms using a comprehensive neurocognitive battery in a sample of 263 children (aged 8-12) selected with a range of CDS symptomatology.

The relation between executive functions, error-related brain activity, and ADHD symptoms in clinically evaluated school-aged children.

Two event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited following errors, the (ERN) and (Pe), have been proposed to reflect cognitive control, though the specific processes remain debated. Few studies have examined the ERN and Pe's relations with individual differences in cognitive control/executive functioning using well-validated tests administered separately from the inhibition tasks used to elicit the ERN/Pe. Additionally, neurocognitive tests of executive functions tend to strongly predict ADHD symptoms, but the extent to which task-based and EEG-based estimates of executive functioning/cognitive control account for the same variance in ADHD symptoms remains unclear.

Does central executive training and/or inhibitory control training improve emotion regulation for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder? A randomized controlled trial.

Introduction: Approximately 48-54% of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have impairing difficulties with emotion regulation, and these difficulties are not ameliorated by first-line ADHD treatments. Working memory and inhibitory control represent promising intervention targets given their functional, if not causal, links with ADHD-related emotion dysregulation.

Methods: This preregistered randomized controlled trial tested whether two digital therapeutic training protocols that have been previously shown to improve working memory (Central Executive Training [CET]) and inhibitory control (Inhibitory Control Training [ICT]) can improve emotion regulation in a sample of 94 children with ADHD aged 8-13 years ( = 10.

Does training working memory or inhibitory control produce far-transfer improvements in set shifting for children with ADHD? A randomized controlled trial.

Children with ADHD show impairments in set shifting task performance. However, the limited available evidence suggests that directly training shifting may not improve shifting performance in this population. We hypothesized that this incongruence may be because impairments exhibited by children with ADHD during shifting tasks are due to deficits in other executive functions, as shifting tasks also engage children's working memory and/or inhibitory control abilities.

Linking ADHD and ASD Symptomatology with Social Impairment: The Role of Emotion Dysregulation.

Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience social impairments. These children also frequently struggle with emotion regulation, and extant literature suggests that emotion dysregulation predicts social impairment in both clinical and neurotypical populations. However, the evidence base linking ADHD/ASD with social impairment comes primarily from samples meeting full diagnostic criteria for ADHD and/or ASD despite evidence that both syndromes reflect extreme ends of natural continuums that are normally distributed across the general population.

Is reduced social competence a mechanism linking elevated autism spectrum symptoms with increased risk for social anxiety?

Objectives: Approximately 50% of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) develop comorbid social anxiety disorder, and this comorbidity predicts poorer treatment outcomes than either syndrome alone. ASD and social anxiety are both associated with reduced social competence as evidenced by difficulties implementing fundamental social skills for successful social interactions, but it remains unclear whether reduced social competence reflects a mechanism that explains the increased risk for social anxiety associated with elevated autism spectrum symptoms.

Design/methods: To address this gap in the literature, the current study combined multi-informant measures (child, parent and teacher report) with a sample of 194 children with and without psychiatric disorders (ages 8-13; 68 girls; 69% White/Non-Hispanic).

Are Reading Interventions Effective for At-Risk Readers with ADHD? A Meta-Analysis.

Objective: Utilizing a multi-level meta-analytic approach, this review is the first to systematically quantify the efficacy of reading interventions for school-aged children with ADHD and identify potential factors that may increase the success of reading-related interventions for these children.

Method: 18 studies (15 peer-reviewed articles, 3 dissertations) published from 1986 to 2020 ( = 564) were meta-analyzed.

Results: Findings revealed reading interventions are highly effective for improving reading skills based on both study-developed/curriculum-based measures ( = 1.

ADHD and dangerous driving in emerging adults: The moderating role of family climate for road safety.

Dangerous driving accounts for 95% of driving fatalities among emerging adults. Emerging adult drivers exhibiting symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are at greater risk for motor vehicle crashes and engaging in unsafe driving practices; however, not all individuals with ADHD symptoms exhibit such risk. Several studies have found that drivers' perceptions of their family's values and priorities related to driving practices predict driving outcomes among emerging adults; these factors have not been examined in the context of ADHD symptomology.