Date of Award

Fall 12-1-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Clinical Psychology

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Liz O'Laughlin

Second Advisor

Tom Johnson

Third Advisor

Ted Maldonado

Abstract

Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD) has a high comorbidity rate with ADHD (Bruno et al., 2019), meaning that many children referred for ADHD evaluation may also meet criteria for DMDD. Additionally, the two disorders can have some similarity in how they present. Thus, clinicians who frequently assess children for ADHD could benefit from being aware of how measures commonly used in ADHD evaluations can also be useful in identifying characteristics of DMDD as well as patterns of impairment more specific to DMDD. The present study explored possible differences in parent and teacher ratings of child peer impairment as well as emotional self-control and negative emotionality between children meeting criteria for ADHD and DMDD, as compared to those diagnosed with ADHD only, ADHD plus an internalizing diagnosis (ADHD + Int), and ADHD plus Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ADHD + ODD). Data was collected from parents and teachers of children (59% male; 41% female) ages 5.5-11 who were evaluated at a university-based ADHD Evaluation clinic in the Midwest. Of the 300 cases reviewed, 11 (3.5%) were found to meet criteria for a retrospective research diagnosis of DMDD. These participants were then matched based on age and gender with participants who received clinical diagnoses of ADHD + ODD, ADHD + Int, and ADHD only, resulting in a total sample of 44 cases. Contrary to hypotheses, children in the DMDD group were not found to have more peer impairment, negative emotionality or difficulty with emotional self-control by teacher or parent report as compared to the other diagnostic groups. Results of analyses utilizing parent report of negative emotionality and emotional self-control approached significance. In addition, parent report of negative emotionality and emotional self-control were significant predictors of diagnostic group membership (DMDD vs. ADHD only). Consistent with previous research, results suggest that parent report may be more useful than teacher report in differentiating DMDD from other diagnostic groups.

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