Peer Relationships in Undergraduates With ADHD Symptomatology: Selection and Quality of Friendships

Abstract

Objective: This study investigated the relationships between ADHD symptomatology and friendship formation, social skills, and the quality of specific friendships in college students.

Method: A total of 156 students, 75 of whom had high self-reported ADHD symptomatology, participated. Friends of 68 participants completed measures of friendship quality.

Results: Students had more positive first impressions of and reported being friends with others whose ADHD symptom severity matched their own. Participants with high ADHD symptoms reported greater difficulty providing emotional support and managing interpersonal conflict than their low-symptom peers. Greater ADHD symptoms in participants and friends were related to reduced quality of specific relationships, but similarity of severity of symptomatology in the dyad benefited the relationship.

Conclusion: These findings have implications for the kind of support offered to students with high ADHD symptomatology when they transition to college. Future longitudinal research examining relationships of varying levels of closeness should be conducted.

Keywords: ADHD; college students; friendship; social skills.