Katusic, Slavica

Objective: To describe bullying experiences throughout childhood of people with and without childhood ADHD and co-occurring learning and psychiatric disorders from a population-based birth cohort. Methods: In a secondary data analysis of 199 childhood ADHD cases and 287 non-ADHD referents ( N = 486), reported experiences of peer interactions during elementary, middle, or high school were classified as “bully,” “victim,” “neither,” or “both.” Associations were assessed with multinomial logistic regression. Results: Adjusted for male sex, the odds of classification as victim-only, victim/bully, or bully- only (vs. neither) were 3.70 (2.36–5.81), 17.71, and 8.17 times higher for childhood ADHD cases compared to non-ADHD referents. Victim-bullies (62.5%) and bullies (64.3%) had both childhood ADHD and other psychiatric disorders versus 38.4% of victims-only and 17.3% of those classified as “neither.” Conclusion: The list of serious lifetime consequences of having ADHD also includes bullying. We offer future research directions for determining potential causal pathways.

Objective: To identify patterns (“classes”) of outcomes for adults with and without childhood ADHD. Method: Subjects were 232 childhood ADHD cases and 335 non-ADHD referents from a 1976 to 1982 birth cohort. We used latent class analyses to identify classes based on a broad array of adult psychosocial outcomes and determined the proportion of subjects with childhood ADHD within each class. Results: A three class solution provided optimal model fit; classes were termed “good,” “intermediate,” and “poor” functioning. Subjects with childhood ADHD comprised 62.8% of the “poor,” 53.5% of the “intermediate,” and 24.9% of the “good” functioning class. The “poor” functioning class was distinguished by increased likelihood of legal trouble and substance use disorders and included more individuals with childhood ADHD and psychiatric disorder than the “intermediate” class (45.5% vs. 30.6%). Conclusion: Children with ADHD are at risk for adverse adult outcomes in multiple domains and co-morbid childhood psychiatric disorders increase risk.