Childhood hyperactivity in an adult psychiatric population: social factors

Social factors in 48 adult patients who as children had had hyperactive child syndrome (HACS) were compared with those of 48 patients matched for age, sex and financial status who had never been hyperactive (non-HACS). The fathers of the HACS patients had been employed in lower work classifications; divorce was somewhat more common in HACS parents when the subjects were under 5 years of age. As adults, HACS patients had less education, lower work status and a higher rate of violence and legal problems. This group's greater adult social disability may result from a failure of parental control rather than a direct effect of their childhood hyperactivity.