Overestimation of Physical Abilities Among Boys With and Without ADHD

Sarah A. Helseth*, Beth S. Bruce, Daniel A. Waschbusch

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: Children with ADHD have been widely reported to overestimate their abilities in social and academic domains, but a similar overestimation of physical abilities has not been examined. Method: Twenty-four elementary school-age boys with ADHD and fifteen boys without ADHD were compared on their ability to accurately estimate their ability to complete four lab-based physical tasks, varying on three levels of difficulty: (a) within their ability, (b) 8% beyond their ability, and (c) 13% beyond their ability. Results: Children with ADHD were significantly more likely than controls to overestimate their physical ability at difficult levels of the task. Conclusion: Implications of these results for preventing risky behaviors in children with ADHD are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)163-167
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Attention Disorders
Volume20
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2016

Keywords

  • ADHD
  • children
  • physical ability
  • positive illusory bias

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Psychology
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology

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