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Self-perception of self-regulatory skills in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder aged 8–10 years

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ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders

Abstract

Several studies have reported a characteristic “positive illusory bias” in the self-evaluation of children with ADHD. However, results are controversial. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether children with ADHD aged 8 to 10 years can rate their self-regulatory skills accurately when assessed with an age appropriate instrument. Twenty-seven children with ADHD and 27 matched normal control children completed the Self-rating Scale of Self-regulatory Function (SelfReg), a new rating scale that has been specifically designed for this age group. As expected, children with ADHD rated themselves significantly more dysfunctional than control children. In most domains, self-ratings of children with ADHD did not diverge from parent and teacher ratings to a greater extent than self-ratings of control children, although overall results indicated a moderate tendency toward a positive bias. When a cluster analysis based on discrepancies between children’s and adults’ evaluations was carried out, three groups with different self-rating patterns emerged: A “positive bias” group containing exclusively children with ADHD, a “negative bias” group containing both children with ADHD and control children, and the largest group of accurate self-raters which also included children from both diagnostic groups. It is concluded that overly positive self-judgments are not a ubiquitous finding in ADHD, but may be confined to a specific subgroup of children whose specific characteristics remain to be determined.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, Grant 3200-066958.01.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Zurich, Neumuensterallee 9, 8032, Zurich, Switzerland

    Patrizia Rizzo, Hans-Christoph Steinhausen & Renate Drechsler

  2. Aalborg Psychiatric Hospital, Aarhus University Hospital, Mølleparkvej 10, 9000, Aalborg, Denmark

    Hans-Christoph Steinhausen

  3. Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, University of Basel, Missionsstrasse 60/62, 4055, Basel, Switzerland

    Hans-Christoph Steinhausen

Authors
  1. Patrizia Rizzo
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  2. Hans-Christoph Steinhausen
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  3. Renate Drechsler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Renate Drechsler.

Appendix

Appendix

SelfReg: item examples for different subscales

Distractibility

Simon and Benjamin do their homework. There are children playing outside.

  1. 1.

    Simon has difficulty to get his homework done. He keeps being distracted by the children playing outside.

  2. 2.

    Benjamin is not disturbed by the children playing outside.

What about you? Do you easily get distracted by noises or voices while doing your homework?

Sustained attention

The children are in class.

  1. 1.

    Alessandro chats very often with his neighbor instead of paying attention.

  2. 2.

    Andreas is able to pay attention for a long time. He rarely chats with his neighbour.

What about you? Are you able to pay attention for a long time without chatting with the person sitting next to you?

Emotional control

Pascal, Joel, and Tim play “Connect 4” at Pascal’s home. Pascal is the first to have placed all four figures in the goal.

  1. 1.

    Joel gets angry and throws all figures all over the play ground.

  2. 2.

    Tim thinks “it’s a pity I lost”, but keeps calm.

What about you? Do you keep calm if you lose a game?

Motor activity

Yves and Marc go shopping with their parents.

  1. 1.

    Yves is running away all the time and touches all kinds of things in the shop.

  2. 2.

    Marc stays with his parents and does not touch things when he is not allowed to.

What about you? Do you stay with your parents when you go shopping?

Motivation

The children have to solve a difficult problem and have difficulty to find the solution.

  1. 1.

    Roman tries to solve the problem for another while.

  2. 2.

    Dario loses his patience after a short while and does not continue. If something doesn’t work right away, Dario gives up.

What about you? Do you try to solve a problem for a while, even if it’s difficult?

Inhibition

The teacher asks a question related to today’s topic “My family”.

  1. 1.

    Daniel raises his hand and answers only when the teacher asks him to.

  2. 2.

    Ivan shouts out the answer in class, without raising his hand.

What about you? Do you shout out an answer in class without raising your hand?

Speed of processing

The teacher says: “Once you have finished this two math problems you can go for a break!”

  1. 1.

    Alex is playing outside for some time. He was as quick as his friends.

  2. 2.

    Fabian is still solving math problems while his friends are playing outside for some time.

What about you? Do you still have to finish your task while other children can go for a break?

Supplementary questions

Motivation
  1. 1.

    Must be called upon to do homework even though he/she fully realizes its importance.

  2. 2.

    Does not finish boring tasks without reward.

  3. 3.

    Needs encouragement and positive feedback to make an effort.

Speed of processing/sluggish tempo
  1. 1.

    Needs more time than other children when trying to work without careless mistakes.

  2. 2.

    Needs more time than other children to finish tasks.

  3. 3.

    Needs much time to learn new things.

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Rizzo, P., Steinhausen, HC. & Drechsler, R. Self-perception of self-regulatory skills in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder aged 8–10 years. ADHD Atten Def Hyp Disord 2, 171–183 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-010-0043-x

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