Support BGU Support BGU
What would you like to search for?
What would you like to search for?

Is ADHD Risk Fixed at Birth?

A 17-year BGU study finds early environments can reduce ADHD symptoms, particularly for children most sensitive to their surroundings.

A 17-year longitudinal study from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev followed children from birth to adolescence to explore whether early-life factors can predict ADHD, and for whom the environment matters most.

Published in Infant and Child Development , the study tracked ~125 children and their parents, examining infant temperament, parental ADHD symptoms, and the richness of the early home environment.

Prof. Andrea Berger | Photo: Dani Machlis/ BGU


The key finding: Early “risk factors” don’t affect all children equally.

Led by Profs. Andrea Berger and Judith G. Auerbach (BGU), together with Dr. Tzlil Einziger, the researchers found that infants showing high motor activity, especially those with parents who have elevated ADHD symptoms — were more sensitive to their environment.

For these children, a rich and supportive home environment strongly predicted better cognitive functioning by age 7, which in turn was linked to fewer ADHD symptoms in later childhood and adolescence. The same sensitivity meant they benefited most from supportive environments — and were more negatively affected by less enriching ones.

"There aren’t just “sensitive” and “non-sensitive” children," explains Prof. Berger, "Sensitivity exists on a continuum, shaped by the interaction between child temperament and parental characteristics."

"Understanding this can help tailor early environments to better support children who need it most," concludes Prof. Auerbach.

Additional researchers included: Prof. Naama Atzaba-Poria, Drs. Rivka Landau, Shoshana Arbelle and Michael Karplus.

The study was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) (Grant Nos. 756/98-01, 869-01, 1058/16).

Simple slopes and Johnson–Neyman plot for the interaction between infant surgency and early home environment. Panel A presents the simple slopes pattern of the interaction between neonatal surgency and the home environment. Panel B shows the Johnson–Neyman region of significance analysis for the slope of the early home environment, as a function of neonatal surgency levels; significant regions (in blue, p < 0.05) indicate that the early home environment significantly predicts child EF (executive function) for infants with these levels of neonatal surgency. Panel C shows the Johnson–Neyman region of significance analysis for the slope of neonatal surgency, as a function of early home environment levels; significant regions (in blue, p < 0.05) indicate that neonatal surgency significantly predicts child EF at specific levels of the early home environment.
A 17-year longitudinal study from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev followed children from birth to adolescence to explore whether early-life factors can predict ADHD, and for whom the environment matters most.Published in Infant and Child Development , the study tracked ~125 children and their parents, examining infant temperament, parental ADHD symptoms, and the richness of the early home environment. Prof. Andrea Berger | Photo: Dani Machlis/ BGU The key finding: Early “risk factors” don’t affect all children equally.Led by Profs. Andrea Berger and Judith G. Auerbach (BGU), together with Dr. Tzlil Einziger, the researchers found that infants showing high motor activity, especially those with parents who have elevated ADHD symptoms — were more sensitive to their environment.For these children, a rich and supportive home environment strongly predicted better cognitive functioning by age 7, which in turn was linked to fewer ADHD symptoms in later childhood and adolescence. The same sensitivity meant they
368