Direct and Indirect Relations between Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Social Impairment: The Role of Emotion Regulation Difficulties and Aggression

Adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms often experience social-relational impairments related to peers and family. Emotion regulation (ER) difficulties and aggression are often comorbid with ADHD and are related to social functioning. Using empirical findings from the childhood ADHD literature to supplement the limited adult ADHD literature, the current study examines direct and indirect relations of ADHD symptoms on social-relational impairment via ER difficulties and aggression. With a community sample of 256 women, two models were examined via structural equation modeling. The first model examined peer impairment, whereas the second model examined family impairment as the outcome variable. In both models, ADHD symptoms were directly related to social-relational impairments. There was an overall indirect effect for each model such that ADHD symptoms were associated with greater ER difficulties, which were associated with greater aggression, which in turn was associated with greater social-relational impairments. Additional findings are discussed in greater detail.