Self-perception of self-regulatory skills in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder aged 8-10years
Rizzo, Patrizia ; Steinhausen, Hans-Christoph ; Drechsler, Renate
In: ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders, 2010, vol. 2, no. 4, p. 171-183
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- Several studies have reported a characteristic "positive illusory bias” in the self-evaluation of children with ADHD. However, results are controversial. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether children with ADHD aged 8 to 10years can rate their self-regulatory skills accurately when assessed with an age appropriate instrument. Twenty-seven children with ADHD and 27 matched normal control children completed the Self-rating Scale of Self-regulatory Function (SelfReg), a new rating scale that has been specifically designed for this age group. As expected, children with ADHD rated themselves significantly more dysfunctional than control children. In most domains, self-ratings of children with ADHD did not diverge from parent and teacher ratings to a greater extent than self-ratings of control children, although overall results indicated a moderate tendency toward a positive bias. When a cluster analysis based on discrepancies between children's and adults' evaluations was carried out, three groups with different self-rating patterns emerged: A "positive bias” group containing exclusively children with ADHD, a "negative bias” group containing both children with ADHD and control children, and the largest group of accurate self-raters which also included children from both diagnostic groups. It is concluded that overly positive self-judgments are not a ubiquitous finding in ADHD, but may be confined to a specific subgroup of children whose specific characteristics remain to be determined