The relationship in children between the inattention and impulsivity components of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and psychopathic tendencies

This study investigated the relationship between the inattention and impulsivity components of Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and psychopathic tendencies in children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. Teachers rated 71 children on the Psychopathy Screening Device (Frick & Hare, 2000: Frick, P. J., & Hare, R. D. (2000). The psychopathy screening device. Toronto: Multi-Health Systems (in press)), the DuPaul’s ADHD rating scale (DuPaul, 1991: DuPaul, G. J. (1991). Parent and teacher ratings of ADHD symptoms: Psychometric properties in a community-based sample. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 20, 245–253), and the Conners’ Abbreviated Symptoms Questionnaire (Conners, 1973: Conners, C. K. (1973). Rating scales for use in drug studies with children. Pharmacotherapy of children [Special Issue]. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 24–84). Significant inter-correlations between teachers’ ratings of children’s inattention and impulsivity and psychopathic tendencies were found. There were significant inter-correlations between teachers’ ratings of the inattention and impulsivity components of ADHD and the Callous and Unemotional (C/UN) and Impulsivity and Conduct (I/CP) problems components of psychopathy. Further analysis revealed that the inter-correlations between these four components were mainly due to the association between the impulsivity component of ADHD and the antisocial behaviour (I/CP) component of psychopathy. The inattention component of ADHD was not related to either of the psychopathy risk measures. Equally, the distinguishing factor of the psychopathy (C/UN) was not related to either of the ADHD measures. A categorical analysis of the data revealed a higher than chance level of co-morbidity of ADHD and psychopathic tendencies.