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The study was conducted by scientists at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Social Research division, the Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare in Trondheim, Norway, and the University of California, Davis. It appears in the journal  Child Development . "ADHD predicts poor relations with peers, but do poor relations with peers affect symptoms of ADHD, forming, in effect, a vicious cycle?" asks Frode Stenseng, associate professor of psychology at NTNU and the study's lead author. "We found that more ADHD symptoms at age 4 predicted more rejection by peers at age 6, and reciprocally, that greater peer rejection at age 4 predicted more symptoms of ADHD at age 6. But these effects were less evident from ages 6 to 8." "The bottom line is that peer rejection and ADHD symptoms are related, but they may also affect each other over time," adds Jay Belsky, Robert M. and Natalie Reid Dorn Professor of Hum...

Now, researchers at the University of Iowa have discovered the reasons why and are hoping this information will help parents teach their children with ADHD how to better navigate busy intersections. "Crossing roads on a bicycle requires decision and action," says Molly Nikolas, an assistant professor in the UI Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences and corresponding author of the study. "What we found is children with ADHD have deficits in both areas." ADHD is a common, developmentally persistent neurodevelopmental disorder that, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, affects 5.9 million children between the ages of 3 and 17 in the United States. UI Researchers studied how 63 children -- 27 with ADHD -- crossed 12 intersections with continuous cross traffic while riding in a real-time bicycle simulator. The children, between the ages of 10 and 14, rode stationary bikes surrounded by three 10-by-8-foot screens that projected imag...