SEPARATION AND COMORBIDITY OF HYPERACTIVITY AND CONDUCT DISTURBANCE IN CHINESE SCHOOLBOYS

In a two-stage community study of 3069 Chinese schoolboys in Hong Kong , those entering stage 2 were classified by scores on Rutter's teacher and parent questionnaires into: (1) a mixed hyperactive/conduct-distu rbed (HA-CD) group; (2) a pure hyperactive (HA) group; (3) a pure cond uct-disturbed (CD) group; and (4) a normal control group. The four gro ups of children were compared on a series of psychosocial, cognitive a nd neurodevelopmental measures. This was followed by a regression anal ysis to examine the specificity of the differential patterns of associ ations between HA and CD. There was a mix of negative and positive fin dings defying a simple, definitive conclusion. However, the positive f indings that did emerge supported a growing body of recent literature which favoured a separation of HA from CD and their cross-cultural val idity: the former was associated with neurodevelopmental impairments, the latter with family disharmony. The mixed condition, HA-CD, was a h ybrid of its two constituent conditions, displaying the attributes of both. Copyright (C) 1996 Association for Child Psychology and Psychiat ry.