Structural relationship between executive functions and risk-taking behaviors in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity mediated by psychological maltreatment

Risky- taking behaviors in people with attention deficit/hyperactivity are due to their impulsivity. Therefore, investigating the effective variables in the occurrence of risky- taking behaviors in these individuals is an inevitable necessity.

The aim of this study was to investigate the structural relationship between executive functions and risky behavior in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity by mediating psychological maltreatment

The research method is descriptive-correlational. The statistical population of this study was all children aged 8 to 12 years in Tehran. The sample consisted of 316 children with ADHD in Tehran referring to psychiatric clinics who were selected by available sampling method. Psychological Maltreatment (Fidel, 1989), Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (Eyberg and Pincus, 1999) and Executive functions self-rating scale (Coolidge and Wynn, 2001) were used to collect the research data. To evaluate the proposed model, structural equation modeling was used using AMOS version 24 and SPSS Version 27.

The results of the structural model showed that 18% of variance of psychological maltreatment is explained by executive functions and 59% of variance of risky -taking behaviors is explained by psychological maltreatment and executive functions.

According to the results, it can be concluded that risky behaviors in children with ADHD are affected by executive functions and the role of psychological maltreatment in this relationship and the occurrence of risky behaviors requires psychological interventions