Abstract
Emotional lability (EL) often co-occurs with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children. However, difficulties of regulating intense emotions in ADHD are still poorly understood. We investigated the potential role of working memory (WM) as a protective factor against EL in children with ADHD by building on models describing the close relationship between WM and regulation of emotions. The parents of 41 children with ADHD and 34 typically developing children (TDC) filled out the emotional control scale (ECS) from the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning and the child behavior checklist (CBCL). The children themselves completed the backward conditions of the digit span (DS) and spatial span (SS) tasks as well as the letter–umber sequencing (LNS) task. The results of a stepwise regression analysis confirmed the negative relationship between parent reported EL measured using the ECS and scores on the LNS, when controlling for symptoms of ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). WM thus seems to be important for the ability of the children to express emotions in an adaptive and flexible way. We therefore suggest that a poorer WM capacity, which is often found in children with ADHD, may be a predictor of high levels of EL.
Highlights
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a frequent neurodevelopmental disorder present in around 5% of children (Polanczyk and Jensen, 2008; Willcutt, 2012)
The general ability index (GAI) score was included as a measure of intellectual level in the current study, because working memory (WM) scores are included in the calculation of the full-scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) scores (Table 1)
Gender appeared to only be significantly correlated with the digit span (DS) scores and not with the other WM scores (LNS and spatial span (SS))
Summary
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a frequent neurodevelopmental disorder present in around 5% of children (Polanczyk and Jensen, 2008; Willcutt, 2012). This has been described as emotional lability (EL; e.g., Sobanski et al, 2010), which includes frequent expressions of high intensity (negative) emotions (Skirrow et al, 2009; Shaw et al, 2014) Such difficulties can be assessed with parent reports on the emotional control scale (ECS) of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function that measures the ability to modulate emotional responses, with high scores indicating a high level of EL or explosiveness (BRIEF; cf page 18 of Gioia et al, 2000). The ability to monitor and modulate incoming information (WM capacity) is believed to be very important for the adaptive perception, experience, and expression of emotions (i.e., level of EL) (e.g., Gross, 2002; Sheppes and Gross, 2011; Sheppes et al, 2014; Smith and Lane, 2015)
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