Psychological Problems in Pakistani Children with Intellectual Disabilities only and Comorbid Attention Deficit /Hyperactivity Disorder

Aim: The study investigated psychological problems in children with intellectual disabilities (ID) with and without co-morbid Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Pakistan. On the basis of available literature following hypotheses were formulated: Children with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) co-morbid Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder will score higher on the domain of a) internalizing, b) externalizing behaviors and c) clinical pathology as compare to children with Intellectual disabilities only.
Study Design: Cross-sectional research design.
Place and Duration of Study: Different special schools from the scattered areas of Karachi, Pakistan were selected by purposive sampling during the year 2009-2010.
Methodology: In order to test hypotheses, a sample of 100 children (50 with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) only and 50 with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) co-morbid ADHD); with age ranging between 6 to 12 years (mean age:8.96;SD=1.5), belonging to middle socioeconomic status was selected from various special schools of Karachi, Pakistan. After taking the permission from authorities of schools and informed consents from parents, Demographic Information Sheet was filled by the researcher and Devereux Scale of Mental disorders was administered on participants (mothers or teachers).
Results: Descriptive statistics and t- test for Independence mean were calculated through SPSS version 12.0. Findings suggest that children with intellectual disabilities co-morbid ADHD scored higher on externalizing behavior problems and clinical pathology as compared to intellectual disabilities only. However, no differences were found on scores of children with ID with and without ADHD on the variable of internalizing behavior problems.
Conclusion: Children with ID comorbid ADHD in Pakistan are more like to exhibit disturbances in psychological and behavior domain as compared to children with intellectual disabilities only.