A Meta-analysis of Executive Functioning in Chinese and North American Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

​This study synthesizes findings from North American and Chinese studies that compare the performance of children with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on executive function tasks. The relationship between the executive functions and ADHD in Chinese and North American children are found to be best described by multimodal model. The magnitude of average performance differences between Chinese and North American children with and without ADHD on each executive function domain fell into medium range. Patterns of effect sizes were statistically the same on response inhibition, working memory planning and vigilance; however, heterogeneity in the variance of effects is statistically detectible in Chinese studies. This analysis indicated that the variability of effects of EFs might be partially explained by age and IQ; however, the culture variance and validity of neuropsychological tests for executive functions adopted across different languages and cultures should be discussed in the future study.