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Miller, Caroline Elise

University of British Columbia

Most children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) demonstrate impairment in social functioning, especially in their social skills. However, internalizing (e.g., anxiety or depression) and externalizing (e.g., oppositional defiant disorder or conduct disorder) conditions both commonly co-occur with ADHD, and may complicate the social functioning profiles of these children. The present study sought to characterize unique social skill deficit profiles associated with the presence of internalizing comorbidity, externalizing comorbidity, and both comorbidities (internalizing + externalizing) in children with ADHD by taking a nuanced approach that considered both global social skills and specific subdomains of skills. Through pooling eight datasets from investigators across the United States and Canada, I tested these questions in a carefully phenotyped sample of n = 1400 children with ADHD, all of whom had parent and teacher ratings of social skills on a consistent measure. Regarding parent ratings of social skills, results indicated both significant main and interaction effects of each comorbidity on lower social skill performance in a varied pattern across global versus specific skills. For teacher ratings of social skills, externalizing comorbidity was consistently associated with poorer social skills across global and specific measures. In conclusion, social skill performance in children with ADHD does vary as a function of comorbidity status. These findings could help inform more personalized or individualized social skill interventions.

Text

2022-08-17

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/82391

Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/