Does Anxiety Systematically Bias Estimates of Executive Functioning Deficits in Pediatric Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder?

ABSTRACT: Growing evidence suggests that childhood ADHD is associated with larger impairments in working memory relative to inhibition. However, most studies have not considered the role of co-occurring anxiety on these estimates - a potentially significant confound given prior evidence that anxiety may increase working memory difficulties but decrease inhibition difficulties for these children. The current study extends prior work to examine the extent to which co-occurring anxiety may be systematically affecting recent estimates of the magnitude of working memory/inhibitory control deficits in ADHD. The carefully-phenotyped sample included 197 children with ADHD and 142 children without ADHD between the ages of 8 and 13 years (N = 339; M_age = 10.31, SD = 1.39; 144 female participants).

SUBMITTER: Marsh CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11216413 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature