AN ETHOLOGICAL STUDY ON BEHAVIORAL-DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HYPERACTIVE, AGGRESSIVE, COMBINED HYPERACTIVE AGGRESSIVE AND CONTROL CHILDREN

Frequencies and sequential patterns of behaviour elements in pure hype ractive (N=12), pure aggressive (N=13), combined hyperactive/aggressiv e (N=15) and control children (N=10) were recorded in a semistructured playroom session and subsequently compared. The samples were age- and IQ-matched. In an overall MANOVA a significant main effect for hypera ctivity but not for aggression was found. The hyperactive children wer e characterized particularly by differences in squirming and changes i n sitting. The sequential patterning of their behaviour revealed weake r temporal contingencies between their behaviour and the conversationa l speech of the experimenter than in the case of the nonhyperactive (a ggressive and control) children. This may be explained by deficits in social attention in the hyperactive groups.