IMPACT OF ADVERSITY ON FUNCTIONING AND COMORBIDITY IN CHILDREN WITH ATTENTION-DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER

Objective: Prior research on risk factors for attention-deficit hypera ctivity disorder (ADHD) has shown that familial risk factors play a ro le in the disorder's etiology. This study investigated whether feature s of the family environment were associated with ADHD. Method: One hun dred forty children with ADHD and 120 normal control probands were stu died. Subjects were Caucasian, non-Hispanic males between the ages of 6 and 17 years. Exposure to parental psychopathology and exposure to p arental conflict were used as indicators of adversity, and their impac t on ADHD and ADHD-related psychopathology and dysfunction in children was assessed. Results: Increased levels of environmental adversity we re found among ADHD compared with control probands. The analyses showe d significant associations between the index of parental conflict and several of the measures of psychopathology and psychosocial functionin g in the children. In contrast, the index of exposure to parental psyc hopathology had a much narrower impact, affecting primarily the child' s use of leisure time and externalizing symptoms. Conclusions: A relat ionship appears to exist between adversity indicators and the risk for ADHD as well as for its associated impairments in multiple domains. T hese findings confirm previous work and stress the importance of adver se family-environment variables as risk factors for children who have ADHD.