THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER(ADHD) SYMPTOMS AND BULLY/VICTIM PROBLEM AMONG MALAYSIAN SIXTH-GRADERS

Objective: school bullying in malaysia is on the rise. while efforts are put together to combat the problem, the psychiatric aspect has been neglected. this is a cross-sectional study aimed to determine the association between the symptoms of adhd and bully/victim problems among malaysian sixth-graders attending primary schools in kuala lumpur. methods: a total of 410 sixth-graders from seven randomly selected schools were assessed with regards to bully/victim problems and adhd symptoms using self-reported questionnaires. malaysian bullying questionnaire was used to rate bully/victim problems while adhd symptoms were assessed using conners-wells’ adolescent self-report scale (cass). teachers and parents also assessed students’ adhd symptoms using conner’s teachers rating scale (ctrs) and conner’s parents rating scale (cprs), respectively. results: self-reported questionnaires showed that 61.2% of the children were involved in bully/victim problems. the adhd symptoms were found significant in relation to bully/victim problems as tested by multiple logistic regression. only students and parents reported significant adhd symptoms among the bully/victim groups. the adhd symptoms reported by students were significant among bullies(or=0.59,ci=0.42-0.83, p<0.01) and bully-victims(or=0.55 ci=0.37-0.81,p<0.00). parents reported significant adhd symptoms only in victims(or=1.260,ci=1.02-1.56,p=0.03). conclusion: the adhd symptoms were significantly present among bullies, victims and bully-victims. these findings open a new perspective of managing bully/victim problems since effective treatment is available for adhd