Psychological adjustment and adaptive impairments in young adults with ADHD

Abstract

The present study compared a group of 25 young adults with ADHD to 23 young adults drawn from the community equated for age (Mean = 25 yrs.) and educational level (Mean 13 yrs.) using a structured psychiatric interview (non-blinded), self-report ratings of psychological distress, and psychological tests of inattention, impulsive responding, working memory, verbal fluency, sense of time, and creativity. Most measures of prior educational and occupational adjustment did not differentiate the young adults with ADHD from the control group. However, those with ADHD reported having experienced more symptoms of both ADHD and opposition al defiant disorder on their jobs as well as in college than control subjects. ADHD adults also were found to have had shorter durations of employment in their full-time jobs than adults in the control group. The young adults with ADHD rated themselves as having greater psychological distress and maladjustment on all scales of the SCL-90-R and reported committing more antisocial acts, particularly involving thefts and disorderly conduct, than the control group. As a result they had been arrested more often than young adults in the control group. The groups did not differ, however, in other types of criminal activity nor in the types and frequency of legal and illegal substances they used. On psychological testing, the ADHD group had significantly poorer response inhibition and sustained attention on a continuous performance test. They were also poorer on tasks of verbal and nonverbal working memory. No significant group differences were found, however, in accuracy of time estimations or productions, verbal fluency, or creativity. It appears that the psychiatric and psychological difficulties found in young adults with ADHD are qualitatively similar to those seen in children with the disorder.