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Working Memory Deficits and Social Problems in Children with ADHD

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Abstract

Social problems are a prevalent feature of ADHD and reflect a major source of functional impairment for these children. The current study examined the impact of working memory deficits on parent- and teacher-reported social problems in a sample of children with ADHD and typically developing boys (N = 39). Bootstrapped, bias-corrected mediation analyses revealed that the impact of working memory deficits on social problems is primarily indirect. That is, impaired social interactions in children with ADHD reflect, to a significant extent, the behavioral outcome of being unable to maintain a focus of attention on information within working memory while simultaneously dividing attention among multiple, on-going events and social cues occurring within the environment. Central executive deficits impacted social problems through both inattentive and impulsive-hyperactive symptoms, whereas the subsidiary phonological and visuospatial storage/rehearsal systems demonstrated a more limited yet distinct relationship with children’s social problems.

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Notes

  1. A third storage component—viz., the episodic buffer—has been proposed recently to explain the integration of information from multiple cognitive systems, but is currently considered a “conceptual tool” (Baddeley 2007 page 149) rather than a formal component of the model.

  2. Precedence for using shared variance to statistically derive central executive and/or storage/rehearsal variables is found in Kane et al. (2004) and Swanson and Kim (2007).

  3. Results of all analyses were unchanged with this child removed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Children’s Learning Clinic-IV, Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, P.O. Box 161390, Orlando, FL, 32761, USA

    Michael J. Kofler, Mark D. Rapport, Jennifer Bolden, Dustin E. Sarver & Joseph S. Raiker

  2. Department of Psychology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA

    R. Matt Alderson

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  1. Michael J. Kofler
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  2. Mark D. Rapport
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  4. Dustin E. Sarver
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  5. Joseph S. Raiker
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Correspondence to Michael J. Kofler.

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Kofler, M.J., Rapport, M.D., Bolden, J. et al. Working Memory Deficits and Social Problems in Children with ADHD. J Abnorm Child Psychol 39, 805–817 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-011-9492-8

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