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. 2017 Mar;26(3):335-344.
doi: 10.1007/s00787-016-0895-5. Epub 2016 Aug 23.

Decision-making in social contexts in youth with ADHD

Ili Ma  1   2 , Nanda N J Lambregts-Rommelse  3   4 , Jan K Buitelaar  3   4 , Antonius H N Cillessen  5 , Anouk P J Scheres  5
Affiliations

Decision-making in social contexts in youth with ADHD

Ili Ma et al. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2017 Mar.

Abstract

This study examined reward-related decision-making in children and adolescents with ADHD in a social context, using economic games. We furthermore examined the role of individual differences in reward-related decision-making, specifically, the roles of reward sensitivity and prosocial skills. Children and adolescents (9-17 years) with ADHD-combined subtype (n = 29; 20 boys) and healthy controls (n = 38; 20 boys) completed the ultimatum game and dictator game as measures of reward-related decision-making in social contexts. Prosocial skills were measured with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. The ADHD group had a larger discrepancy between ultimatum game and dictator game offers than controls, indicating strategic rather than fairness driven decisions. This finding was supported by self-reports showing fewer individuals with ADHD than controls who considered fairness as motive for the decisions. Perspective taking or empathic concern did not differ between groups and was not significantly associated with offers. In conclusion, the results suggest that rather than a failure to understand the perspective of others, children and adolescents with ADHD were less motivated by fairness than controls in simple social situations. Results encourage the use of economic games in ADHD research.

Keywords: ADHD; Decision-making; Motivation; Social.

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Conflict of interest statement

JB has been in the past 3 years a consultant to/member of advisory board of/and/or speaker for Janssen Cilag BV, Eli Lilly, Shire, Lundbeck, Roche and Servier. He is not an employee of any of these companies and not a stock shareholder of any of these companies. He has no other financial or material support, including expert testimony, patents or royalties. The authors IM, NR, AC and AS have nothing to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Histograms show the number of participants per decided offer for each group. a Number of participants for each ultimatum game offer per group. b Number of participants for each dictator game offer per group. c Number of participants for each difference score between ultimatum and dictator game offers per group
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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