title: Self-perception of self-regulatory skills in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder aged 8-10 years.
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.
authors: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
authors: Patrizia
authors: P
authors: Rizzo
authors: Hans-Christoph
authors: HC
authors: Steinhausen
authors: Renate
authors: R
authors: Drechsler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012649:Self Concept; D057566:Self Report; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012927:Social Control, Informal