Sylvie Mrug

What aspects of peer relationships are impaired in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder?

Participants included 165 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; 130 boys, 35 girls) and their 1,298 same-sex classmates (1,026 boys, 272 girls) who served as raters. For each child with ADHD, a child of the same sex was randomly selected from the same classroom to serve as a comparison child, which yielded 165 dyads. Consistent with predictions, contrasted with the comparison children, those with ADHD were lower on social preference, higher on social impact, less well liked, and more often in the rejected social status category; they also had fewer dyadic friends. When liking ratings that children made versus received were examined, children with ADHD had less positive imbalance and greater negative imbalance relative to comparison children. Analyses that considered the types of peers who chose children with ADHD as friends or nonfriends demonstrated that children with ADHD were nominated as nonfriends by children of higher social preference and who were better liked by others.

Peer-assessed outcomes in the multimodal treatment study of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Peer-assessed outcomes were examined at the end of treatment (14 months after study entry) for 285 children (226 boys, 59 girls) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were rated by their classmates (2,232 classmates total) using peer sociometric procedures. All children with ADHD were participants in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA). Treatment groups were compared using the orthogonal treatment contrasts that accounted for the largest amount of variance in prior MTA outcome analyses: Medication Management + Combined Treatment versus Behavior Therapy + Community Care; Medication Management versus Combined Treatment; Behavior Therapy versus Community Care. There was little evidence of superiority of any of the treatments for the peer-assessed outcomes studied, although the limited evidence that emerged favored treatments involving medication management. Post hoc analyses were used to examine whether any of the four treatment groups yielded normalized peer relationships relative to randomly selected-classmates. Results indicated that children from all groups remained significantly impaired in their peer relationships.

The Factor Structure of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory

In the first study, we administered the 40-item Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Terry, 1988) to 843 female and 843 male college students, most of whom were Euro-American, to comprehensively assess the NPI factor structure using confirmatory factor analysis. Initial exploratory common factor analyses (N = 724) revealed a 2-factor model (Leadership/Authority and Exhibitionism/Entitlement). Subsequently, we used confirmatory factor analysis in a separate sample (N = 724) to evaluate the Emmons (1987) 4-factor model, the Raskin and Terry (1988) 7-factor model, the Kubarych, Deary, and Austin (2004) 2- and 3-factor models, and our 2-factor model. Finally, we assessed construct validity by correlating the scale scores with the Five-factor model of personality in an independent sample (N = 238). The 2-factor models for the NPI we obtained in this study and by Kubarych et al. (2004) appeared to be the most parsimonious models, with both a good fit to the data and satisfactory internal consistency values; so they are recommended for use. However, additional NPI research is needed to rescale, modify, or omit several NPI items and develop gender-equivalent items.

Violence Exposure Across Multiple Contexts: Individual and Joint Effects on Adjustment

This study examined the relationship between violence exposure in three different contexts (home, school, and community) and internalizing and externalizing outcomes in early adolescents. We modeled both context-specific and cumulative effects of exposure to violence. After controlling for a number of risk factors associated with violence exposure, violent incidents encountered at school and at home were consistently related to multiple outcomes. Violence exposure in the community was related only to aggressive fantasies but not to other externalizing or internalizing problems. High levels of violence exposure in the community attenuated the relationship between home violence and internalizing symptoms and school violence and externalizing problems. Cumulative exposure to violence was related to all aspects of adjustment, but the number of contexts in which violence occurred did not predict beyond the effects of cumulative exposure. Finally, high levels of cumulative violence exposure were associated with a plateau or decrease in emotional distress.

Prospective effects of violence exposure across multiple contexts on early adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems.

BACKGROUND Violence exposure within each setting of community, school, or home has been linked with internalizing and externalizing problems. Although many children experience violence in multiple contexts, the effects of such cross-contextual exposure have not been studied. This study addresses this gap by examining independent and interactive effects of witnessing violence and victimization in the community, home, and school on subsequent internalizing and externalizing problems in early adolescence. METHODS A community sample of 603 boys and girls (78% African American, 20% Caucasian) participated in a longitudinal study of youth violence. During two assessments 16 months apart, adolescents reported on witnessing violence and victimization in the community, school, and home, and their internalizing and externalizing problems. RESULTS Multiple regressions tested the independent and interactive effects of witnessing violence or victimization across contexts on subsequent adjustment, after controlling for initial levels of internalizing and externalizing problems and demographic covariates. Witnessing violence at school predicted anxiety and depression; witnessing at home was related to anxiety and aggression; and witnessing community violence predicted delinquency. Victimization at home was related to subsequent anxiety, depression, and aggression; victimization at school predicted anxiety; and victimization in the community was not independently related to any outcomes. Finally, witnessing violence at home was associated with more anxiety, delinquency, and aggression only if adolescents reported no exposure to community violence. CONCLUSIONS Violence exposure at home and school had the strongest independent effects on internalizing and externalizing outcomes. Witnessing community violence attenuated the effects of witnessing home violence on anxiety and externalizing problems, perhaps due to desensitization or different norms or expectations regarding violence. However, no comparable attenuation effects were observed for victimization across contexts.

Predictive Value of Informant Discrepancies in Reports of Parenting : Relations to Early Adolescents' Adjustment

Research has demonstrated a lack of agreement between parent and child reports across a range of parent and child variables. These discrepancies hinder the interpretation of research findings as well as diagnostic and treatment decisions in clinical practice. The current study examined the hypothesis that discrepancies between parent and child reports of parenting can be useful as predictors of future child outcomes. The participants included 559 early adolescents and their primary caregivers (79% African American, 21% Caucasian). Both respondents provided information on parental nurturance, harsh discipline and inconsistent discipline. A year later, information of adolescents’ internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and social competence was collected. Structural equation modeling revealed that parent-child discrepancies in parenting reports could be explained by a latent factor which was a significant predictor of child internalizing problems and social competence, but not of externalizing problems, after adjusting for initial internalizing and externalizing problems. The three models applied across gender and ethnicity.

Dimensions and Correlates of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Sluggish Cognitive Tempo

The present study examined Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) in relation to ADHD symptoms, clinical diagnosis, and multiple aspects of adjustment in a clinical sample. Parent and teacher reports were gathered for 322 children and adolescents evaluated for behavioral, emotional, and/or learning problems at a university clinic. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) supported the presence of three separate, but correlated factors (SCT, inattention, and hyperactivity/impulsivity) in both parent and teacher ratings. As expected, SCT symptoms were greatest in youth with ADHD Inattentive type, but were also found in non-ADHD clinical groups. SCT symptoms were related to inattention, internalizing, and social problems across both parent and teacher informants; for parent reports, SCT was also related to more externalizing problems. Findings support the statistical validity of the SCT construct, but its clinical utility is still unclear.

Behavior and peer status in children with ADHD: Continuity and change.

Objective: Children with ADHD experience peer problems that may place them at risk for adverse outcomes. Using a short-term longitudinal design, this study links specific behaviors to peer functioning in groups of previously unfamiliar children with ADHD. Method: The participants were 268 children with ADHD who took part in an intensive summer treatment program. The program used a comprehensive behavioral point system that yielded observational data for 12 behavioral categories. These behavioral categories were used to predict peer acceptance, rejection, and liking assessed at three times during the program. Results: Following activity rules, helping, whining, and attention emerged as best predictors of initial peer status. Subsequent helping behaviors and activity rule following predicted changes in peer status, but their contributions were small. Conclusion: The results indicate that increasing helping and rule- following behaviors may improve peer functioning of children with ADHD in similar settings. (J. of Att. Dis. 2007; 10(4) 359-371)

A friendship intervention for children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Preliminary findings

Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are known to experience difficulty in peer relationships. Neither standard interventions for ADHD nor peer acceptance-oriented interventions fully remedy this problem. We propose that interventions targeting ADHD children’s dyadic friendships may be more realistic strategies for improving peer relationships. Hence, a friendship intervention, implemented within the context of an intensive behavioral treatment program with 209 ADHD children, is described. A model is proposed in which the friend’s antisocial behavior relates to parental compliance with the friendship intervention, and both the friend’s antisocial behavior and parental compliance predict friendship quality and treatment response. Results indicate that children paired with peers lower on antisocial behavior and children whose parents had higher levels of compliance with the friendship intervention achieved higher quality friendships and were rated by teachers as more improved.

Choosing or Being Chosen by Aggressive-Disruptive Peers: Do They Contribute to Children's Externalizing and Internalizing Problems?.

The goal of this study was to investigate the extent to which aggressive–disruptive peers contribute to the development of externalizing and internalizing problems in children, while controlling for childrens own behavior. We examined 2 sets of peers: (1) those that the child nominated as friends, and (2) those that nominated the child as a friend. The participants were 236 boys and girls attending 3rd to 5th grade at the beginning of the study, who were followed over a period of 2 years. Results showed that choosing more aggressive peers on the nomination procedure was associated with more externalizing problems and self-reported depressive symptomatology over time. On the other hand, being liked by more aggressive children generally was not associated with elevated externalizing or internalizing problems.