The Joint Effect of Bilingualism and ADHD on Executive Functions

Billy Mor; Sarin Yitzhaki-Amsalem; Anat Prior

doi:10.1177/1087054714527790

The Joint Effect of Bilingualism and ADHD on Executive Functions

Billy Mor
, Sarin Yitzhaki-Amsalem
, Anat Prior

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Objective: The current study investigated the combined effect of ADHD, previously associated with executive function (EF) deficits, and of bilingualism, previously associated with EF enhancement, on EF. Method: Eighty University students, Hebrew monolinguals and Russian Hebrew bilinguals, with and without ADHD participated. Inhibition tasks were a Numeric Stroop task and a Simon arrows task. Shifting tasks were the Trail Making Test (TMT) and a task-switching paradigm. Results: Participants with ADHD performed worse than controls, but we did not find a bilingual advantage in EF. The negative impact of ADHD was more pronounced for bilinguals than for monolinguals, but only in interference suppression tasks. Bilingual participants with ADHD had the lowest performance. Conclusion: Bilingualism might prove to be an added burden for adults with ADHD, leading to reduced EF abilities. Alternatively, the current findings might be ascribed to over- or under-diagnosis of ADHD due to cultural differences between groups. These issues should be pursued in future research.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	527-541
Number of pages	15
Journal	Journal of Attention Disorders
Volume	19
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054714527790
State	Published - 11 Jun 2015

Keywords

adult ADHD
cognitive control
executive function
language

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Developmental and Educational Psychology
Clinical Psychology

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10.1177/1087054714527790

Cite this

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title = "The Joint Effect of Bilingualism and ADHD on Executive Functions",

abstract = "Objective: The current study investigated the combined effect of ADHD, previously associated with executive function (EF) deficits, and of bilingualism, previously associated with EF enhancement, on EF. Method: Eighty University students, Hebrew monolinguals and Russian Hebrew bilinguals, with and without ADHD participated. Inhibition tasks were a Numeric Stroop task and a Simon arrows task. Shifting tasks were the Trail Making Test (TMT) and a task-switching paradigm. Results: Participants with ADHD performed worse than controls, but we did not find a bilingual advantage in EF. The negative impact of ADHD was more pronounced for bilinguals than for monolinguals, but only in interference suppression tasks. Bilingual participants with ADHD had the lowest performance. Conclusion: Bilingualism might prove to be an added burden for adults with ADHD, leading to reduced EF abilities. Alternatively, the current findings might be ascribed to over- or under-diagnosis of ADHD due to cultural differences between groups. These issues should be pursued in future research.",

keywords = "adult ADHD, cognitive control, executive function, language",

author = "Billy Mor and Sarin Yitzhaki-Amsalem and Anat Prior",

note = "Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by EU-FP7 Grant IRG-249163 to Anat Prior. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2014 SAGE Publications",

year = "2015",

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doi = "10.1177/1087054714527790",

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AU - Yitzhaki-Amsalem, Sarin

AU - Prior, Anat

N1 - Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by EU-FP7 Grant IRG-249163 to Anat Prior. Publisher Copyright: © 2014 SAGE Publications

PY - 2015/6/11

Y1 - 2015/6/11

N2 - Objective: The current study investigated the combined effect of ADHD, previously associated with executive function (EF) deficits, and of bilingualism, previously associated with EF enhancement, on EF. Method: Eighty University students, Hebrew monolinguals and Russian Hebrew bilinguals, with and without ADHD participated. Inhibition tasks were a Numeric Stroop task and a Simon arrows task. Shifting tasks were the Trail Making Test (TMT) and a task-switching paradigm. Results: Participants with ADHD performed worse than controls, but we did not find a bilingual advantage in EF. The negative impact of ADHD was more pronounced for bilinguals than for monolinguals, but only in interference suppression tasks. Bilingual participants with ADHD had the lowest performance. Conclusion: Bilingualism might prove to be an added burden for adults with ADHD, leading to reduced EF abilities. Alternatively, the current findings might be ascribed to over- or under-diagnosis of ADHD due to cultural differences between groups. These issues should be pursued in future research.

AB - Objective: The current study investigated the combined effect of ADHD, previously associated with executive function (EF) deficits, and of bilingualism, previously associated with EF enhancement, on EF. Method: Eighty University students, Hebrew monolinguals and Russian Hebrew bilinguals, with and without ADHD participated. Inhibition tasks were a Numeric Stroop task and a Simon arrows task. Shifting tasks were the Trail Making Test (TMT) and a task-switching paradigm. Results: Participants with ADHD performed worse than controls, but we did not find a bilingual advantage in EF. The negative impact of ADHD was more pronounced for bilinguals than for monolinguals, but only in interference suppression tasks. Bilingual participants with ADHD had the lowest performance. Conclusion: Bilingualism might prove to be an added burden for adults with ADHD, leading to reduced EF abilities. Alternatively, the current findings might be ascribed to over- or under-diagnosis of ADHD due to cultural differences between groups. These issues should be pursued in future research.

KW - adult ADHD

KW - cognitive control

KW - executive function

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ER -

The Joint Effect of Bilingualism and ADHD on Executive Functions

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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