A-155 The Relationship between Parent-Reported Inattention Symptoms and Intra-Individual Variability in Neuropsychological Performance in Male Children and Adolescents

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Abstract Objective While previous research has demonstrated that males show greater intra-individual variability (IIV) in neuropsychological performance than females (Roalf et al., 2014), previous studies have not investigated how IIV relates to psychological factors in each gender. This study examined the relationship between psychological symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety and inattention) and IIV in male and female pediatric samples. Method Participants included 135 male and 210 female individuals between the ages of 6 and 17 from Nathan Kline Institute’s Rockland Project. Participants endorsing a medical diagnosis associated with cognitive impairment (e.g., brain injury; n = 19) were excluded. The four psychological variables included T-scores from the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) total to measure depression, the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) to measure anxiety, Conners ADHD Rating Scale - Parent to measure parent-ratings of inattention, and the Conners ADHD Rating Scale – Youth to measure self-rated inattention. IIV scores for accuracy were calculated from 10 subtests from the Penn Computerized Neurocognitive Battery. Results In male participants, a regression analysis predicting IIV accuracy scores revealed that the four psychological variables together accounted for 7% of the variance in IIV accuracy scores. Conners Parent Inattention T-scores significantly predicted IIV accuracy scores in males (β = 0.19, p 0.16). In an analogous regression analysis with female participants, psychological symptoms did not significantly predict IIV accuracy scores. Conclusions Results indicated that inattention reported by parents predicted IIV accuracy for male children and adolescents in a community sample.