engleski

Some characteristics of children diagnosed with ADHD and referred to the child protection centre of Zagreb

The first aim of this paper is to establish whether children with ADHD (N=471) who were referred to the Cild Protection Centre of Zagreb differ by individual characteristics (extraversion/introversion, aggressive behavior) and some general characteristics (gender, school grades) from their non-ADHD (N=472) peers who were also referred to the Child Protection Centre. The second aim is to examine whether there are statistically significant differences in certain characteristics between children diagnosed with ADHD who witnessed family violence and children not diagnosed with ADHD who witnessed family violence. The data will be shown with descriptive statistics and analyzed by appropriate parametric and nonparametric methods. The results demonstrate that ADHD was more prevalent in boys than girls, and amongst extraverted and aggressive children. Also, children diagnosed with ADHD are more emotionally hypersensitive and have more difficulty reading comprehension than children without ADHD. Although there were no statistically significant differences in academic achievement between children with ADHD and children without ADHD, children with ADHD who witnessed family violence had significantly poorer academic achievement than children without ADHD. Therefore, witnessing family violence might represent a risk factor for poor academic achievement amongst children with ADHD. It is important to note that the sample used in this study only included children referred to the Child Protection Centre, an institution specialised for psycho traumatised children. Therefore, the result cannot be generalised to the entire population of children. However, we hope that the results of this study will contribute to better quality services delivered to children with ADHD, as well as to preventing their secondary difficulties and encouraging future research on this topic.

ADHD; characteristics

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