Deficient adaptive emotion regulation in children with ADHD

Abstract

The primary aim of the present study is to examine whether children with and without ADHD differ in the emotion-regulation strategies they use. It also examines the extent to which emotion-regulation patterns in children with ADHD are associated with additional psychological problems. Method: Twenty-one children with and 20 children without ADHD aged 10–13 years completed the Questionnaire for the Assessment of Emotion Regulation in Children and Adolescents (FEEL-KJ; Grob & Smolenski, 2005). Parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Woerner, Becker & Rothenberger, 2004). Results: Children with ADHD reported using adaptive strategies to regulate their emotions less frequently than controls, whereas no self-reported differences were found for maladaptive strategies. Specifically, significant group differences were found for the adaptive strategies “cognitive problem solving,” “problem-oriented action,” “mood enhancement,” “reappraisal,” and “distraction.” Children with ADHD also reported using the strategy “social support” significantly less often. Correlation analyses further demonstrated significant negative associations between adaptive emotion regulation and psychological problems. Conclusions: Children affected by ADHD use especially those emotion-regulation strategies less often that aim at a problem-focused modification of the respective stressful situation. In particular, those children with ADHD who make especially infrequent use of adaptive emotion-regulation strategies suffer from additional psychological problems.