Hyperactives as young adults: self-esteem and social skills.

Eighteen pairs of young adult hyperactives and controls, matched for age, sex, IQ and socioeconomic class and education completed, were assessed on tests of social skills and self-esteem. Hyperactive subjects had significantly more difficulty than matched controls in social skills tests which involved direct oral responses than those involving written responses. This would suggest that the hyperactive young adults cognitively know what the most appropriate response would be from a number of possibilities, but have problems spontaneously producing such a response. Situations dealing with heterosocial and assertion situations were more difficult for hyperactives than job interview situations. Hyperactive young adults also scored significantly worse than matched controls on a number of self-esteem tests, thus supporting the findings of previous psychiatric assessments and the California Psychological Inventory. Finally, no significant correlations were found between the self-esteem and social skills tests. Possible explanations for the findings are discussed.