Empathy Differences Between and Within Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Typically Developing Children.

Abstract

This study examined differences in cognitive and affective empathy between 6 and 7 year old children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the influence of symptoms of inattention and impulsivity/hyperactivity on empathy levels in the ADHD children. ADHD status was assigned based on a parent interview which reflected DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. Parents and teachers reported on both cognitive and affective empathy through questionnaires. A story task measured self-reports of affective empathy by presenting children with an emotional story about a boy or girl of their age and asking them how the story made them feel. Furthermore, a computer ball game task measured the behavioral expression of empathy by simulating a ball game in which the child had to choose between self-gain or empathy and act accordingly. ADHD children received lower empathy ratings from both their parents and their teachers, with the exception of parental affective empathy ratings. Self-reports on the story task did not differ between the two groups. In the ball game task, children with ADHD were equally sensitive to the distress of the child but let him become maximally sad more often than healthy developing children. Finally, the amount ofsymptoms of inattention and impulsivity/ hyperactivity could not predict empathy levels in children with ADHD in any of the measures. Overall, our results show that cognitive empathy and the behavioural, but not verbal, expression of affective empathy were affected in children with ADHD. Implications are discussed.