Measuring Temporal Self-Regulation in Children With and Without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Sense of Time in Everyday Contexts
Abstract
A new parent report measure entitled the Salience, Organization and Management of Time Scale (SOMTS) that assessed the temporal regulation of children with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) in everyday contexts was developed over three phases (item generation, preliminary validation, and factorial structure). Items were compiled from related earlier instruments plus parental interviews, with final selection determined on the basis of item affectivity indices. The final study was, in part, an online study. Principal components analysis and confirmatory factor analyses from a sample of parents of children with (n = 194) and without (n = 142) AD/HD indicated a three factor structure of the new instrument (Verbalizing temporal structures, Temporal self-regulation, and Conceptualizing and sequencing time). Significant between-group differences revealed children with AD/HD performed worse on all three factors compared to children without AD/HD. The factors exhibited moderate discriminant validity when used individually and excellent discriminant validity when used in combination. The three distinct and reliable factors identified by the new instrument map well onto themes emphasized in a comprehensive theory of AD/HD and the between-group differences are consistent with the theory’s characterization of a developmental delay in sense of time in young people with the disorder.
References
1997). Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 65–94.
(1998). It’s about time. Unpublished manuscript, University of Massachusetts, USA.
(2002). Persistence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder into adulthood as a function of reporting source and definition of disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 279–289.
(2004). EQS 6 structural equations program manual. Encino, CA: Multivariate Software Inc.
(2004). How informative are parent reports of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder symptoms for assessing outcome in clinical trials of long-acting treatments? A pooled analysis of parents’ and teachers’ reports. Pediatrics, 113, 1667–1671.
(2007). Sense of time and executive functioning in children and adults. Child Neuropsychology, 13, 1–15.
(1996). The robustness of test statistics to nonnormality and specification error in confirmatory factor analysis. Psychological Methods, 1, 16–29.
(2006). Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A review of the essential facts. Child Care Health and Development, 32, 193–204.
(2004). The marital and family functioning of adults with ADHD and their spouses. Journal of Attention Disorders, 8, 1–10.
(1995). How reliable are maternal reports of their children’s psychopathology? One year recall of psychiatric diagnoses of ADHD children. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 34, 1001–1008.
(2008). Time reproduction disturbances in ADHD children: An ERP study. International Journal of Neuroscience, 118, 119–135.
(2008). Salience and temporal sequencing of time related actions in boys with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Child Neuropsychology, 14, 60–70.
(1999). Cut off criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1–55.
(1992). Can test statistics in covariance structure analysis be trusted? Psychological Bulletin, 112, 351–362.
(2000). Handbook of psychological testing (2nd ed.). London, UK: Routledge.
(2005). A psychoeducational program for children with ADHD or depression and their families: Results from the CMAP Feasibility Study. Community Mental Health Journal, 41, 51–61.
(2007). Time monitoring and executive functioning in children and adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 96, 1–19.
(2003). Time perception differences in children with and without ADHD. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 17, 64–71.
(2005). The relationship between behavioral inhibition and time perception in children. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 18, 148–160.
(2000). Parent-teacher concordance for DSM-IV attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in a clinic-referred sample. Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 39, 308–313.
(2009). Parental involvement in children’s learning: Comparing parents of children with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Journal of School Psychology, 47, 167–185.
(2007). Performance of children with ADHD on a test battery of impulsiveness. Child Neuropsychology, 13, 276–304.
(1988). Scaling corrections for χ² statistics in covariance structure analysis. ASA 1988 proceedings of the business and economic section (pp. 308–313). Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association.
(2003). The top and the bottom of ADHD: A neuropsychological perspective. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 27, 583–592.
(2002). Evidence for a pure time perception deficit in children with ADHD. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 43, 529–542.
(2001). The ecological validity of delay aversion and response inhibition measures of impulsivity in ADHD: A supplement to the NIMH multimodal treatment study of ADHD. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 29, 215–228.
(1996). Hyperactivity and delay aversion III: The effect on cognitive style of imposing delay after errors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 37, 189–194.
(2007). Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Diagnosis, lifespan, comorbidities, and neurobiology. Ambulatory Pediatrics, 7, 73–81.
(1996). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
(1996). Factor analytic evidence for the construct validity of scores: A historical overview and some guidelines. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 56, 197–208.
(2006). Temporal information processing in ADHD: The findings to date and new methods. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 151, 15–29.
(2003). Time perception deficits in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and comorbid reading difficulties in child and adolescent samples. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 44, 888–903.
(1993). Children with hyperactivity and their organizational abilities. Journal of Educational Research, 87, 112–117.
(1986). Comparison of five rules for determining the number of components to retain. Psychological Bulletin, 99, 432–442.
(