Chi‐Yung Shang

This study aimed to establish the psychometric properties of parent ratings on the Chinese version of the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham IV scale (SNAP-IV) in a school-based sample of 3534 students in grades 1 to 8 from two cities and two suburbs in Taiwan and 189 children diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (aged 6 to 15) consecutively recruited from a medical center in Taipei. Parents completed the Chinese versions of the SNAP-IV, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and Child Behavior Checklist. The Chinese SNAP-IV demonstrated similar three factor structure (Inattention, Hyperactivity/Impulsivity, and Oppositional) as its English version, and satisfactory test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation = 0.59 approximately 0.72), internal consistency (alpha = 0.88 approximately 0.90), concurrent validity (Pearson correlations = 0.56 approximately 0.72), and discriminant validity. Boys scored higher than girls across the eight school grade levels. The SNAP-IV clearly distinguished children with ADHD from school-based participants. Comorbidity with oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder predicted higher SNAP-IV scores among children with ADHD. Our findings suggest that the Chinese SNAP-IV is a reliable and valid instrument for rating ADHD-related symptoms in both clinical and community settings in Taiwan.

Adolescent eveningness is associated with age, parental monitoring, daytime sleepiness, sleep problems, moodiness, and the use of coffee. This study investigated the association between adolescent morningness-eveningness and psychopathology, substance use, and suicidality in 1332 students ages 12 to 13. Each student-participant completed the Chinese version of the Child Morningness/Eveningness Scale (CMES), the Pubertal Development Scale, and a questionnaire about their sleep schedule, trouble sleeping, habitual substance use, and suicidality. Their mothers completed the Child Behavioral Checklist and Chinese Health Questionnaire. The morning (n = 412), intermediate (n = 740), and evening (n = 180) groups were operationally defined by the CMES t scores. The mixed model was used for data analysis. The evening group had shorter weekday sleep time, longer weekend sleep time, more daytime napping, and greater sleep compensation on weekends and was more likely than the other 2 groups to have behavioral/emotional problems, suicidality, and habitual substance use. Internalizing and externalizing problems partially explained the association between eveningness, substance use, and suicidality. The findings suggest that eveningness may be an indicator for adolescents with behavioral/emotional problems and risky behaviors and suggest an investigation for possible intervention.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about executive functions among unaffected siblings of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and there is lack of such information from non-Western countries. We examined verbal and nonverbal executive functions in adolescents with ADHD, unaffected siblings and controls to test whether executive functions could be potential endophenotypes for ADHD. METHODS: We assessed 279 adolescents (age range: 11-17 years) with a childhood diagnosis of DSM-IV ADHD, 136 biological siblings (108 unaffected, 79.4%), and 173 unaffected controls by using psychiatric interviews, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - 3rd edition (WISC-III), including digit spans, and the tasks involving executive functions of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB): Intra-dimensional/Extra-dimensional Shifts (IED), Spatial Span (SSP), Spatial Working Memory (SWM), and Stockings of Cambridge (SOC). RESULTS: Compared with the controls, adolescents with ADHD and unaffected siblings had a significantly shorter backward digit span, more extra-dimensional shift errors in the IED, shorter spatial span length in the SSP, more total errors and poorer strategy use in the SWM, and fewer problems solved in the minimum number of moves and shorter initial thinking time in the SOC. The magnitudes of the differences in the SWM and SOC increased with increased task difficulties. In general, neither persistent ADHD nor comorbidity was associated with increased deficits in executive functions among adolescents with ADHD. CONCLUSIONS: The lack of much difference in executive dysfunctions between unaffected siblings and ADHD adolescents suggests that executive dysfunctions may be useful cognitive endophenotypes for ADHD genetic studies.

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of age, gender and perinatal risk factors on the risks for sleep problems, and investigate the relation between childhood sleep problems and children's behavioral syndromes and parental mental distress in early and middle childhood. We recruited a representative sample of 1391 children, ages 4-9, from nine kindergartens and three elementary schools by using a multistage sampling method. Parents of child participants completed a questionnaire including perinatal risk factors, sleep habits and problems, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Chinese Health Questionnaire (CHQ). A mixed model was used for data analysis to address cluster effect from the same classes and schools. Results showed that boys suffered from more sleep problems than girls. Early insomnia, sleep terrors and enuresis decreased with ages, but sleepwalking increased with ages. Perinatal exposure to alcohol, coffee and non-prescribed medication, vaginal bleeding, artificial delivery, first-born order and higher parental CHQ score (> or =4) were significantly associated with several childhood sleep problems. In addition, children with sleep problems had higher T-scores of the eight behavioral syndromes derived from the CBCL. Our findings indicated that the childhood sleep problems were associated with perinatal risk factors, parental psychopathology and children's behavioral problems.