Children with ADHA or Anxiety Disorders: Are Common or Specific Variables Associated with Decreased Performance on Intelligence Indices?

Although overall psychopathology has been linked to lower intellectual functioning, research has yet to investigate whether one or multiple specific underlying symptom clusters significantly correlate with working memory (WM) and processing speed (PS) deficits. The current study investigated these relationships as they apply to Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and anxiety disorders. As such, one goal of this study was to investigate the extent to which common and specific symptom clusters would predict ADHD and anxiety diagnoses compared to a control group when PS and WM were partialled out. A further goal was to determine if one could differentially predict ADHD from anxiety diagnoses based on symptom clusters. Finally, if statistically indicated the current study was interested in comparing potential differences between parents’ and teachers’ endorsement tendencies. Correlations and multi-nominal logistic regression analyses were conducted. Results indicated no significant correlations between overall psychopathology and WISC indices, nor symptom clusters and WISC indices. Multinomial logistic regressions indicated significantly higher odds of receiving a diagnosis of anxiety versus no diagnosis with parent reported anxious/depressed mood in the subclinical to clinical ranges. Furthermore, the odds of receiving an ADHD diagnosis versus no diagnosis were significantly higher for children whose parents reported subclinical to clinical scores on the attention problems scale. Lastly, results indicated higher odds of receiving an ADHD versus anxiety diagnosis with parent reported symptoms of inattention in the subclinical to clinical range. Teacher reported symptoms did not significantly predict diagnostic groups