Hyperactive girls face problems as adults

LONDON, Ontario, March 20 (UPI) -- Hyperactive young girls are more likely to smoke, underperform in school or jobs and gravitate toward mentally abusive relationships, a Canadian study said.

Researchers from the University of Montreal and the University College London tracked 881 Canadian girls from the ages of 6 to 21 to see how hyperactivity -- restlessness, jumping up and down, a difficulty keeping still or fidgety -- or aggressive behavior -- fighting, bullying, kicking, biting or hitting, in childhood -- could affect early adulthood.

The researcher found 1 in 10 girls monitored showed high levels of hyperactive behavior. Another 1 in 10 girls showed both high levels of hyperactive and physically aggressive behavior.

"This study shows that hyperactivity combined with aggressive behavior in girls as young as six years old may lead to greater problems with abusive relationships, lack of job prospects and teenage pregnancies," lead researcher Nathalie Fontaine of the University College London said in a statement.

The study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, also found that hyperactive or aggressive girls were more vulnerable to grow into smoking, psychologically abusive partners and poor performance in school.