ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN CLINIC-REFERRED BOYS AND THEIR FATHERS ON CHILDHOOD INATTENTION-OVERACTIVITY AND AGGRESSION DIMENSIONS

The question asked in this study of 70 clinically referred 6- to 12-ye ar-old boys with behavior problems was whether or not childhood inatte ntion-overactivity and aggression are transmitted specifically from bi ological fathers to sons. Fathers' self-reported childhood inattention -overactivity on a retrospectively valid measure was exclusively assoc iated with parents' ratings of their sons' current attention problems on the Mothers' Operational Measure for Subgrouping (MOMS), the Revise d Child Behavior Checklist (RCBCL), and an approximated DSM-IV inatten tion dimension. Fathers' self-reported childhood aggression was not as sociated with ratings of their sons' aggression on the MOMS or DADS (a parallel instrument for fathers), nor on DSM-III oppositional or cond uct disorder dimensions, but it was exclusively associated with RCBCL ratings of sons' aggressive and delinquent behavior. None of the nonsp ecific correlations (father inattention-overactivity with son aggressi on or father aggression with son inattention-overactivity) was signifi cant.