Psychological Maladjustment in Offspring of Adults with ADHD

Abstract

ADHD is a highly heritable disorder (Nigg, 2006). Children with the disorder have significantly elevated rates of ADHD among their biological relatives (Biederman et al., 1992; Faraone & Doyle, 2001) and adults with the disorder have a significantly greater incidence (41%) of ADHD among their own siblings and other relatives (Manshadi, Lippman, O’Daniel, & Blackman, 1992) than do adults without ADHD (Murphy & Barkley, 1996). We should, therefore, not be surprised to learn that adults with ADHD have a higher incidence of the disorder among their own biological offspring. Biederman and associates (Biederman, Faraone, Keenan, Benjamin, Krifcher et al., 1995) found that 57% of the offspring of their clinic–referred sample of adults with ADHD also met DSM diagnostic criteria for the disorder. More recently, Minde et al. (2003) found a similarly elevated risk to offspring in that 43% of the children of their adult ADHD group met DSM–IV criteria for the disorder. Consistent with studies of children with ADHD, in this study the offspring with ADHD were also more likely to have oppositional defiant disorder (47% vs. 6%) and either a mood or anxiety disorder (34% vs. 6%) relative to children of the non–ADHD control adults. Minde et al. (2003) also used the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 2001) to assess the psychological maladjustment of the offspring in this study. The ADHD children of adults with ADHD had significantly elevated scores on the Attention Problems, Internalizing, Externalizing, and Total Problems scales than did the non–ADHD offspring of the ADHD adults or than children of the control adults. Teacher ratings on this same scale found the children with ADHD of adults with ADHD to also be rated significantly higher on all but the Internalizing scale of the four scales noted above. The children who did not have ADHD yet who were offspring of adults with ADHD did not differ from the chil-