Is the Positive Illusory Bias Illusory? Examining Discrepant Self-Perceptions of Competence in Girls with ADHD

J Abnorm Child Psychol (2012) 40:987998 DOI 10.1007/s10802-012-9615-x

Is the Positive Illusory Bias Illusory? Examining Discrepant Self-Perceptions of Competence in Girls with ADHD

Erika N. Swanson & Elizabeth B. Owens &

Stephen P. Hinshaw

Published online: 6 March 2012# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Abstract It has been claimed that excessively positive self-perceptions of competence are a key risk factor for concurrent and subsequent impairments in youth with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We examined whether girls with ADHD demonstrate positive illusory self-perceptions in scholastic competence, social acceptance, and behavioral conduct domains. We then tested, across a five-year longitudinal span, whether (a) such self-perceptions versus (b) the constituent informant ratings or test scores were more strongly predictive of adolescent impairment and positive adjustment. Participants included an ethnically diverse sample of 140 girls with ADHD and 88 comparison girls, aged 612 at baseline (M09.0, SD01.7). Girls with ADHD rated themselves as more positive than indicated by external ratings, but these self-reports were still in a negative direction (comparison girls rated themselves as less positive than these indicators). ADHD subtypes were not related to discrepancy scores. Higher rates of depression symptoms were associated with attenuated discrepancy scores. Crucially, measures of actual competence were more strongly associated with adolescent impairment and positive

adjustment than were illusory self-perceptions for girls with ADHD. Our findings challenge the view that, at least in girls with ADHD, overly positive and illusory appraisals of competence are strongly associated with future impairment and adjustment. The key psychometric point is that, in difference or discrepancy scores, the individual components of such scores should be separately examined.

Keywords ADHD . Girls . Positive illusory bias . Self-appraisal . Discrepancy scores . Longitudinal . Impairment

Children and adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have major impairments in crucial developmental domains: academic achievement, peer relationships, and behavioral control, to name three of the most salient (Barkley 2006; Hinshaw 2002; Nigg 2006). Yet there is mixed empirical evidence as to how children with ADHD view their competency in these domains and the linkages between such self-perceptions and key indicators of adjustment. Some investigations, utilizing direct comparisons between clinical and control samples, suggest that children with ADHD possess lower self-concepts than comparison peers (e.g., Slomkowski et al. 1995; Treuting and Hinshaw 2001)....