Quality of life and coping mechanisms among adults with ADHD

Abstract

AbstractPurpose: Studies have revealed that individuals with ADHD estimate their quality of life to be poorer, compared to individuals in a non-clinical sample. This may be due to limited resources for coping with stressful life events. The objective of this study was to examine whether adults with ADHD use different coping strategies, compared to their spouses and a comparison group. Furthermore, the aim was to find out whether dysfunctional coping strategies among ADHD people would affect their estimation of their quality of life, and cause them to rate it lower than a non-ADHD group. Participants: 73 couples participated in the study - 42 couples where one partner had a confirmed diagnosis of ADHD from a physician, and 31 couples who did not meet the inclusion criteria of diagnosed ADHD, but matched other criteria.Measures: The couples answered background questions and seven psychological questionnaires, of which three were used in this study; The Barkley ADHD Current Symptom Scale (BCS), Quality of life scale (QLS) and Brief Cope. Three subscales of Brief Cope Scale were used; Dysfunctional coping strategy (DCS), solution focused strategy (SFS), and emotional focused strategy (EFS). Results: ANOVA demonstrated that those diagnosed with ADHD used more DCS and estimated themselves to be less satisfied compared to their spouses and to non ADHD couples. Significant correlation was found between coping strategies and QLS within all groups, revealing that those diagnosed with ADHD had the strongest correlation to DCS. Multible regression showed that both DCS and SFS explained a significant proportion of the variance of QLS (31,2%).Conclusions: Adults with ADHD use dysfunctional coping strategies more often and estimate their quality of life to be lower, compared to their spouses and a comparison group. Keywords: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, quality of life, coping mechanisms.