The relationship between ADHD symptoms, mood instability, and self-reported offending. 2013

Gisli H Gudjonsson, and Jon Fridrik Sigurdsson, and Tomas F Adalsteinsson, and Susan Young
King's College London, United Kingdom. gisli.gudjonsson@kcl.ac.uk

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relative importance of ADHD symptoms, mood instability, and antisocial personality disorder traits in predicting self-reported offending. METHODS A total of 295 Icelandic students completed two scales of offending behavior and measures of ADHD symptoms, mood instability, and antisocial personality traits. RESULTS Self-reported offending from the two independent scales correlated significantly with ADHD symptoms, mood instability, and antisocial personality traits with medium to large effect size. Multiple regressions showed that ADHD symptoms contributed to the two outcome measures beyond that of age and gender with a medium effect size. The ADHD effects were only partly mediated by mood instability and antisocial personality traits for general offending but were almost completely mediated by the more reactive measure of antisocial behavior. CONCLUSIONS ADHD appears to be a potential risk factor for general offending in its own right irrespective of the presence of comorbidity, whereas mood instability is more important with regard to reactive behavior.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D005260 Female Females
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000293 Adolescent A person 13 to 18 years of age. Adolescence,Youth,Adolescents,Adolescents, Female,Adolescents, Male,Teenagers,Teens,Adolescent, Female,Adolescent, Male,Female Adolescent,Female Adolescents,Male Adolescent,Male Adolescents,Teen,Teenager,Youths
D000339 Affect The feeling-tone accompaniment of an idea or mental representation. It is the most direct psychic derivative of instinct and the psychic representative of the various bodily changes by means of which instincts manifest themselves. Mood,Affects,Moods
D001289 Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity A behavior disorder originating in childhood in which the essential features are signs of developmentally inappropriate inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Although most individuals have symptoms of both inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity, one or the other pattern may be predominant. The disorder is more frequent in males than females. Onset is in childhood. Symptoms often attenuate during late adolescence although a minority experience the full complement of symptoms into mid-adulthood. (From DSM-V) ADHD,Attention Deficit Disorder,Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder,Brain Dysfunction, Minimal,Hyperkinetic Syndrome,Minimal Brain Dysfunction,ADDH,Attention Deficit Disorders with Hyperactivity,Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders,Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder,Attention Deficit Disorders,Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorders,Deficit Disorder, Attention,Deficit Disorders, Attention,Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, Attention,Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorders, Attention,Disorder, Attention Deficit,Disorder, Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity,Disorders, Attention Deficit,Disorders, Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity,Dysfunction, Minimal Brain,Syndromes, Hyperkinetic
D013334 Students Individuals enrolled in a school or formal educational program. School Enrollment,Enrollment, School,Enrollments, School,School Enrollments,Student
D057237 Criminals Persons who have committed a crime or have been convicted of a crime. Offenders,Criminal,Offender
D057566 Self Report Method for obtaining information through verbal responses, written or oral, from subjects. Report, Self,Reports, Self,Self Reports
D019964 Mood Disorders Those disorders that have a disturbance in mood as their predominant feature. Affective Disorders,Affective Disorder,Disorder, Affective,Disorder, Mood,Disorders, Affective,Disorders, Mood,Mood Disorder

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