The Role of Hyperactive and Aggressive Symptomatology in Predicting Adolescent Outcome Among Hyperactive Children

Research regarding adolescent outcome for hyperactive youngsters is briefly reviewed. It is noted that hyperactive adolescents are at risk for a variety of academic, emotional, and societal difficulties which apparently develop regardless of whether the child was successfully treated with medication. This is true despite the fact that in short-term studies stimulant medication repeatedly has been found to reduce hyperactive symptomatology. The authors believe that the reason for this seeming inconsistency is that neither the nature nor the degree of primary symptomatology (e.g., childhood hyperactivity and inattention) plays a role in predicting adolescent outcome. Thus, research which has concentrated on the effects of (drug) treatment on hyperactivity has little relevance for predicting or explaining adolescent outcome. Instead, those variables often considered as secondary or resultant symptomatology (e.g., aggressivity) have been found to have predictive utility. Research effort might be more profitably spent investigating the role of such secondary variables as aggression and determining whether intervention procedures directed specifically toward childhood aggression would improve the hyperactive adolescent's outcome.