ABSTRACT
It is unclear if impairments in social functioning and peer relationships significantly differ across common developmental conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder (CD), and associated callous-unemotional traits (CU traits). The current study explored sex differences and symptoms of parent- and teacher-reported psychopathology on peer relationships and prosocial behaviour in a sample of 147 referred children and adolescents (aged 5-17 years; 120 m). The results showed that increases in parent-reported ADHD Inattentive symptoms and teacher-reported ADHD Hyperactive-Impulsive symptoms, CD, ODD, and CU traits were significantly associated with peer relationship problems across sex. At the same time, teacher-reported symptoms of ODD and both parent- and teacher-reported CU traits were related to difficulties with prosocial behaviour, for both boys and girls, with sex explaining additional variance. Overall, our findings show a differential association of the most common disruptive behaviours to deficits in peer relationships and prosocial behaviour. Moreover, they highlight that different perspectives of behaviour from parents and teachers should be taken into account when assessing social outcomes in disruptive behaviours. Given the questionable separation of conduct problem-related constructs, our findings not only point out the different contribution of those aspects in explaining peer relationships and prosocial behaviour, but furthermore the variance from different informants about those aspects of conduct problems.
Subject(s)
Anxiety/psychology , Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/psychology , Conduct Disorder/psychology , Peer Group , Problem Behavior/psychology , Social Behavior , Adolescent , Anxiety/epidemiology , Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/epidemiology , Child , Child, Preschool , Conduct Disorder/epidemiology , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Humans , Interpersonal Relations , Male , Social AdjustmentABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Effective implementation of parent training programmes for preschool Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder type is constrained by barriers limiting take-up and effective engagement by 'hard to reach' and 'difficult to treat' families. METHOD: We describe an evidence-driven adaptation and piloting of an existing empirically supported preschool ADHD parenting programme to address these problems. RESULTS: The New Forest Parenting programme was changed substantially in terms of length; content and delivery on the basis of information gathered from the literature, from parents and practitioners, further modifications were made after the pilot study. CONCLUSIONS: The adapted-NFPP is currently being assessed for efficacy in a large multicentre randomized controlled trial.
