Parent Psychopathology and Neurocognitive Functioning in Children With ADHD.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the association between parent mental health (ADHD and depression) and offspring performance on neurocognitive tasks in children with ADHD.

METHOD: The clinical sample consisted of 570 children (85% males, mean age: 10.77 years) with ADHD who completed neurocognitive tasks measuring working memory, attention set-shifting, and motivational deficits. Questionnaire measures were used to assess ADHD and depression symptom presence in parents.

RESULTS: Controlling for ADHD severity, children of parents with ADHD had poorer working memory ( B = -0.25, 95% confidence interval [CI] [-0.45, -0.07], p = .01) and increased errors on the extra dimensional shift stage of the set-shifting task ( B = 0.26 95% CI [0.02, 0.50], p = .04). Parent depression was not associated with offspring performance on any of the assessed neurocognitive tasks.

CONCLUSION: Children with ADHD who have a parent with ADHD symptom presence are a subgroup of children who may have additional neurocognitive impairments that have potential implications when implementing interventions that target cognition and learning.