Parent ratings of executive function in young preschool children with symptoms of attention-deficit/-hyperactivity disorder

Behavioral and Brain Functions

Annette Holth Skogan⁴  Pål Zeiner⁴  Jens Egeland³  Anne-Grethe Urnes²  Ted Reichborn-Kjennerud⁵  Heidi Aase¹ 

[1] Division of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Nydalen 0403, Oslo, Norway

[2] Regional Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Eastern and Southern Norway (RBUP), Nydalen 0405, Oslo, Norway

[3] Vestfold Hospital Trust, Tønsberg, 3103, Norway

[4] Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Nydalen 0424, Oslo, Norway

[5] Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Blindern 0317, Oslo, Norway

关键词: Working memory;    Inhibition;    BRIEF-P;    Preschool;    Executive function;    ADHD;   

Others  :  1172042
DOI  :  10.1186/s12993-015-0060-1

 received in 2014-10-28, accepted in 2015-03-24,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

Recent research has demonstrated that deficits in basic, self-regulatory processes, or executive function (EF), may be related to symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) already during the preschool period. As the majority of studies investigating these relations in young children have been based primarily on clinically administered tests, it is not clear how early symptoms of ADHD may be related to observations of EF in an everyday context. The preschool version of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF-P) was developed to provide information about EF through observable, behavioral manifestations of self-regulation, and is the most commonly used rating scale for EF assessment in children.

Methods

Relations between symptoms of ADHD reported in the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment interview (PAPA), and EF as measured by the BRIEF-P (parent form), were investigated in a large, nonreferred sample of preschool children (37–47 months, n = 1134) recruited from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The inventory’s discriminative ability was examined in a subsample consisting of children who met the diagnostic criteria for either ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) or anxiety disorder, and typically developing controls (n = 308). The four groups were also compared with regard to patterns of EF difficulties reported in the BRIEF-P.

Results

Of the five BRIEF-P subscales, Inhibit and Working Memory were the two most closely related to ADHD symptoms, together explaining 38.5% of the variance in PAPA symptom ratings. Based on their scores on the Inhibit and Working Memory subscales (combined), 86.4% of the children in the ADHD and TD groups were correctly classified. ADHD symptoms were associated with more severe difficulties across EF domains, and a different EF profile in comparison to children with other symptoms (anxiety, ODD) and to typically developing controls.

Conclusions

Early symptoms of ADHD were linked to parent-reported difficulties primarily within inhibition and working memory, suggesting that deficiencies within these two EF domains characterize early forms of ADHD. Our findings support the clinical utility of the BRIEF-P as a measure of EF in young preschool children with symptoms of ADHD.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Skogan et al.; licensee BioMed Central.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

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