Correlates, associated impairments and patterns of service utilization of children with attention deficit disorder: findings from the Ontario Child Health Study

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to report on the correlates of attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADDH), the associated impairments of ADDH children, and to describe briefly their utilization of services. Our results suggest that household, family, parental, and developmental variables are associated with this disorder. However, child-centered, rather than psychosocial, variables emerge as important if one controls for the presence of other disorders. Compared to children without any disorder, ADDH children are also impaired in their relationships with others, their school performance, and competence in extra-curricular activities. ADDH children utilized mental health, social, and special education services more than non-ADDH children. Nevertheless, it was found that only a minority of ADDH children had received specialized mental health or social services in the past 6 months.