Measuring Executive Function Deficits in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
Abstract
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that often
negatively impacts behaviour, cognition, and academic achievement. Children with ADHD also
exhibit deficits in executive functioning (EF). Current conceptualizations of ADHD suggest that
deficits across multiple cognitive processes, rather than a single core deficit, contribute to the
manifestation of the disorder. In the current study, children with ADHD (n = 40) and typical
controls (n = 36), ages 8 to 12, were compared on performance-based measures and behaviour
ratings of EF, including inhibition, verbal and visuospatial working memory, and set shifting.
Children with ADHD demonstrated significantly weaker performance on both the verbal and
visuospatial working memory tasks, but no group differences emerged on the inhibition and set
shifting tasks. Group differences remained when gender and cognitive scores were statistically
controlled, but some differences disappeared when academic scores were entered as covariates.
Parent behaviour ratings revealed significantly weaker EF scores for the ADHD group across all
measures evaluated; all differences remained with the inclusion of gender, cognitive scores, and
academic performance as covariates. Correlational analyses revealed modest, yet significant,
associations between performance-based measures and behaviour ratings of EF; however, these
associations were not uniquely correlated between performance-based tasks and behaviour
ratings of EF hypothesized to measure the same underlying construct. Findings highlight the
importance of using a combination of performance-based and behaviour ratings of EF in the
assessment and treatment of ADHD. Implications for the clinical and diagnostic utility of EF
assessment in ADHD are addressed.
Description
Keywords
Educational Psychology
Citation
Kubas, H. (2016). Measuring Executive Function Deficits in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26857