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Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Social Skills in Youth: A Moderated Mediation Model of Emotion Dysregulation and Depression

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Abstract

Although studies document an association between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and social problems, little is known about mediating or moderating mechanisms underlying this association. We examined whether, among youth, emotion dysregulation (ED) mediates the negative association between ADHD and social skills, and whether this mediational process is moderated by symptoms of depression. A total of 171 youth with ADHD (76 % male; Mage = 12.15, SD = 0.95) and their parents completed measures of ED, depression, and social skills. Results indicated that, after controlling for oppositional defiant disorder, the negative association between ADHD and social skills was mediated by ED. Further, this indirect effect was relevant for youth with non-clinical and subclinical levels of depression but not for those with clinical levels of depression. These findings underscore the importance of ED in the association between ADHD and social functioning among youth and suggest a need for additional research to understand how and when ED impacts such functioning.

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Notes

  1. Currently, many different and at times conflicting definitions of emotion regulation are accepted in the field. As such, there is often limited theoretical and empirical agreement on conceptualizations of the construct. We adopt Barkley’s definition of ED as this definition is most specific to ADHD.

  2. Constructive emotional coping includes, for example, an inability to continue a task in the wake of frustration, an inability to seek help from parents when frustrated, extreme levels of negative affect, poor problem solving, and an extreme focus on negative aspects of a task.

  3. As measured by teacher ratings of cooperation, assertiveness, and self-control and by peer-ratings of desirability as play- or study-partners.

  4. The macros provide a 95 % confidence interval around the indirect effect. When zero is not in the 95 % confidence interval (i.e., both numbers fall on the same side of 0), it can be concluded that the indirect effect is significantly different from zero at p < 0.05 (two tailed).

  5. When controlling for gender and age in our analyses, by including gender and age as covariates in the models, neither emerged as a significant covariate (gender ps ranging from 0.304 to 0.810; age ps ranging from 0.146 to 0.603).Thus, the models on which we report data do not include gender or age as a covariate.

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Author Notes and Disclosures

During the preparation of this article, the first author was supported in parts by the Elizabeth Munsterberg Koppitz Dissertation Fellowship, awarded by the American Psychological Foundation. The second and fourth authors were supported in parts by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (5ROIMH082864) and the second author by grants from the Department of Education, Institute of Educational Sciences (R324C08006; R324A120272). The contents of this article do not necessarily represent the views of the American Psychological Foundation, National Institutes of Health or Institute for Education Sciences and do not imply endorsement by the federal government.

We wish to thank Andrew F. Hayes and Eric A. Youngstrom for their valuable assistance and feedback during the preparation of this manuscript.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Ohio University, 200 Porter Hall, Athens, OH, 45701, USA

    Nora Bunford & Steven W. Evans

  2. Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, 45229, USA

    Stephen P. Becker

  3. Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, 806 West Franklin Street, Richmond, VA, 23284-2018, USA

    Joshua M. Langberg

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Bunford, N., Evans, S.W., Becker, S.P. et al. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Social Skills in Youth: A Moderated Mediation Model of Emotion Dysregulation and Depression. J Abnorm Child Psychol 43, 283–296 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-014-9909-2

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