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A maladaptive response to stress in individuals with high ADHD traits may be a key factor explaining co-occurring ADHD symptoms and internalising problems. The current study investigates whether between-person differences in ADHD traits are associated with differences in the within-person moment-to-moment coupling of stress and negative affect; and whether these can explain between-person differences in internalising problems (N = 262, median-age 20). Results of a dynamic structural equation model indicated that between-person differences in ADHD traits significantly moderated the daily life coupling between stress and negative affect. Further, higher ADHD traits were associated with stronger stress carry-over and higher mean levels of negative affect. Stress carry-over and mean levels of negative affect mediated the association between ADHD traits and internalising problems.

A maladaptive response to stress in individuals with high ADHD traits may be a key factor explaining co-occurring ADHD symptoms and internalising problems. The current study investigates whether between-person differences in ADHD traits are associated with differences in the within-person moment-to-moment coupling of stress and negative affect; and whether these can explain between-person differences in internalising problems (N = 262, median-age 20). Results of a dynamic structural equation model indicated that between-person differences in ADHD traits significantly moderated the daily life coupling between stress and negative affect. Further, higher ADHD traits were associated with stronger stress carry-over and higher mean levels of negative affect. Stress carry-over and mean levels of negative affect mediated the association between ADHD traits and internalising problems., Author(s): Lydia Gabriela Speyer [sup.1] [sup.2] , Ruth Harriet Brown [sup.2] , Denis Ribeaud [sup.3] , Manuel Eisner [sup.3] [sup.4] , Aja Louise Murray [sup.2] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.5335.0, 0000000121885934, [...]

Recent evidence suggests that, contrary to traditional views, empathy difficulties may not be a core feature of autism; but are rather due to co-occurring alexithymia. Empathy, alexithymia and autistic traits have yet to be examined concurrently in children. Therefore, we examined the co-occurrence of empathy difficulties and alexithymia in 59 typically developing and 5 autistic children. Multiple measures (self-report, parent-report and a behavioural task) were used to evaluate empathy and to assess differences in self- and parent-reports using multiple regressions. Alexithymia was found to predict empathy significantly better than autistic traits, providing support for the alexithymia hypothesis. From a therapeutic perspective, results suggest autistic children who screen positive for elevated alexithymic traits may benefit from additional support targeting emotion identification.

Recent evidence suggests that, contrary to traditional views, empathy difficulties may not be a core feature of autism; but are rather due to co-occurring alexithymia. Empathy, alexithymia and autistic traits have yet to be examined concurrently in children. Therefore, we examined the co-occurrence of empathy difficulties and alexithymia in 59 typically developing and 5 autistic children. Multiple measures (self-report, parent-report and a behavioural task) were used to evaluate empathy and to assess differences in self- and parent-reports using multiple regressions. Alexithymia was found to predict empathy significantly better than autistic traits, providing support for the alexithymia hypothesis. From a therapeutic perspective, results suggest autistic children who screen positive for elevated alexithymic traits may benefit from additional support targeting emotion identification., Author(s): Lydia Gabriela Speyer [sup.1] , Ruth Harriet Brown [sup.1] , Lorna Camus [sup.2] , Aja Louise Murray [sup.1] , Bonnie Auyeung [sup.1] [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.4305.2, 0000 0004 [...]

Response shifts can be defined as a change in the way that a respondent interprets and responds to symptom questionnaire items, over and above true changes in their symptoms. Response shifts are liable to occur as a result of psychotherapy and can undermine evaluations of the effectiveness of psychotherapy interventions by making pre- and post- intervention scores non-comparable. We evaluated whether such response shifts were in evidence in the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) and how this affected the comparisons of group-level scores before and after counselling intervention. We found that response shifts were minimal, making it likely that they can be easily addressed by testing group-level change within an appropriate latent variable model, rather than relying on observed scores.

Teacher ratings of student behaviors vary systematically both at the student and teacher/classroom level. Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (ML-CFA) can disaggregate between- and within-teacher/classroom variance, identify an optimal psychometric model at each level, and test correlates of the resulting dimensions. In this study, 250 teachers (37% males) rated an average of 4.02 students (51% males; aged 10 years at Time 1 and 11 years at Time 2) from a normative sample of Swiss youth. Substantial and unidimensional between-teacher variation in ratings of both prosociality and aggression were identified, and this was stable across time. These dimensions were not associated at the between-teacher/classroom level with teacher gender or teacher-student relationships, although they were associated with teacher-student relationships at the within-teacher/classroom level. There was little between-teacher/classroom variation observed in student self-reports of prosocial and aggressive behavior, and multilevel CFA was not possible for these ratings. Future research should aim to identify sources of between-teacher/classroom variation. This should include factors that influence negative and positive teacher perceptions of and response biases related to student behavior as well as those that influence student behavior itself.

Previous studies have hinted at sex differences in developmental trajectories in ADHD symptoms; however, little is known about the nature or cause of these differences and their implications for clinical practice. We used growth mixture modelling in a community-ascertained cohort of n = 1,571 participants to study sex differences in ADHD symptom developmental trajectories across the elementary and secondary school years. Participants were measured at ages 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 15. We found that females were more likely to show large symptom increases in early adolescence while males were more likely to show elevated symptoms from childhood. For both males and females, early adolescence represented a period of vulnerability characterized by relatively sudden symptom increases. Females affected by hyperactivity/impulsivity may be more likely to be excluded from diagnosis due to current age of onset criteria. More attention should be paid to early adolescence as a period of risk for hyperactivity/impulsivity symptom onset or worsening.