Is a mild deficit in executive functions in boys related to childhood ADHDor to parental multigenerational alcoholism?

A mild deficit in executive functions has been hypothesized to be associate d with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), with externalizing problem behaviors such as conduct disorder (CD) and with the vulnerability to alcoholism in sons of multi-generational alcoholics (SOMGAs). These thre e categories overlap, which raises concerns about the specificity of the hy pothesized associations. In the present study, measures of executive functi ons (EFs) were tested in seventy-six 7- to 11-year-old boys: boys with ADHD but without a family history of addiction, SOMGAs, and controls. Specific deficits in EFs were found for boys with ADHD but not for SOMGAs. The assoc iation between a deficit in EFs and attention problems remained after contr olling for externalizing problem behaviors, but not for the reverse. These results suggest that a mild deficit in EFs is specifically related to ADHD and that the deficits reported in boys with CD and in SOMGAs are due to rel atively high attentional problems in these groups or due to other factors s uch as motivation.