Follow-Up Study on the Adjustment of ADHD Adolescence.

A follow-up investigation evaluated the adolescent outcomes of 10 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder who had been treated 5 or more years earlier at a university school clinic with a multimodal treatment program called the Cognitive Academic Social Treatment program. The study hypothesized that adolescents and parents would have different beliefs about how the adolescent was functioning with respect to impulsiveness, inattentiveness, and hyperactivity. Ten of 65 surveys were returned and analyzed. Independent variables studied included: length and type of treatment, age treatment began, degree of aggression, socioeconomic status of family, and academic services. Dependent variables included family conflict, peer relationships, and school progress. Results indicated that parents reported their adolescents had significantly more conflict in their lives than adolescents themselves reported, suggesting that the strategies taught in the program for coping with problems had not been internalized. Results supported previous findings that multimodal intervention programs in childhood do not have significant positive effects in adolescence. Research on effects of continuous multimodal group therapy (from childhood through adolescence) is urged. (Contains 12 reference.) (DB)