Self-perceptions of competence in children with ADHD and comparison children

Abstract

The self-perceptions of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 487) were compared with those of children in a local normative comparison group (n = 287), relative to teacher- and parent-rated perceptions of their competence. Children were participants in the ongoing follow-up portion of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD. Children with ADHD were much more likely than comparison children to overestimate their competence relative to adult report, regardless of who was used as the criterion rater (teacher, mother, or father). Examination by comorbidity subgroups revealed that children with ADHD inflated their self-perceptions the most in domains of greatest deficit. Gender effects also are reported.