Peer relationships and prosocial behaviour differences across disruptive behaviours.
Sara V Milledge, Samuele Cortese, Margaret Thompson, Fiona McEwan, Michael Rolt, Brenda Meyer, Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Hedwig Eisenbarth
Author Information
Sara V Milledge: Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
Samuele Cortese: Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
Margaret Thompson: Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
Fiona McEwan: Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
Michael Rolt: Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
Brenda Meyer: Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK.
Edmund Sonuga-Barke: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Kings College, London, SE5 9RJ, UK.
Hedwig Eisenbarth: Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK. hedwig.eisenbarth@vuw.ac.nz. ORCID
It is unclear if impairments in social functioning and peer relationships significantly differ across common developmental conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), conduct disorder (CD), and associated callous-unemotional traits (CU traits). The current study explored sex differences and symptoms of parent- and teacher-reported psychopathology on peer relationships and prosocial behaviour in a sample of 147 referred children and adolescents (aged 5-17 years; 120 m). The results showed that increases in parent-reported ADHD Inattentive symptoms and teacher-reported ADHD Hyperactive-Impulsive symptoms, CD, ODD, and CU traits were significantly associated with peer relationship problems across sex. At the same time, teacher-reported symptoms of ODD and both parent- and teacher-reported CU traits were related to difficulties with prosocial behaviour, for both boys and girls, with sex explaining additional variance. Overall, our findings show a differential association of the most common disruptive behaviours to deficits in peer relationships and prosocial behaviour. Moreover, they highlight that different perspectives of behaviour from parents and teachers should be taken into account when assessing social outcomes in disruptive behaviours. Given the questionable separation of conduct problem-related constructs, our findings not only point out the different contribution of those aspects in explaining peer relationships and prosocial behaviour, but furthermore the variance from different informants about those aspects of conduct problems.
