Long-term relationships between symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and self-esteem in a prospective longitudinal study of twins

Abstract

AIM: To study the long-term relationship between symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the developing self-esteem in a population-based sample of twins. METHODS: The cohort is all twin pair families born in Sweden between May 1985 and December 1986 (n = 1.480). Wave 1 took place in 1994 when the twins were 8 years old and wave 2 in 1999 when the children were 13 years old. In wave 1 and 2 the parents completed questionnaires regarding ADHD-symptoms about their children. In wave 2 the twins completed a questionnaire about self-esteem and Youth Self Report (YSR). ADHD-symptoms and self-esteem were analyzed in the total study group. RESULTS: There was a long-term relationship between high scores of parental-reported ADHD-symptoms at 8 and 13 years of age and low scores in measures of self-reported self-esteem at 13 years of age. In the cotwin control method controlling for YSR internalizing problem, paired comparisons within the twin pairs revealed that a high score of ADHD-symptoms at age 8 was related to significantly lower scores at age 13 in the self-esteem. CONCLUSIONS: The long-term relationships between ADHD-symptoms and a low self-esteem in a population-based sample were confirmed by the co-twin analyses.