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. 2022 Mar;26(5):643-655.
doi: 10.1177/10870547211025629. Epub 2021 Jun 24.

Are There Resilient Children with ADHD?

Elizabeth S M Chan  1 , Nicole B Groves  1 , Carolyn L Marsh  1 , Caroline E Miller  2 , Kijana P Richmond  3 , Michael J Kofler  1
Affiliations

Are There Resilient Children with ADHD?

Elizabeth S M Chan et al. J Atten Disord. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

Objective: The adverse outcomes associated with ADHD are well known, but less is known about the minority of children with ADHD who may be flourishing despite this neurodevelopmental risk. The present multi-informant study is an initial step in this direction with the basic but unanswered question: Are there resilient children with ADHD?

Method: Reliable change analysis of the BASC-3 Resiliency subscale for a clinically evaluated sample of 206 children with and without ADHD (ages 8-13; 81 girls; 66.5% White/Non-Hispanic).

Results: Most children with ADHD are perceived by their parents and teachers as resilient (52.8%-59.2%), with rates that did not differ from the comorbidity-matched Non-ADHD sample.

Conclusion: Exploratory analyses highlighted the importance of identifying factors that promote resilience for children with ADHD specifically, such that some child characteristics were promotive (associated with resilience for both groups), some were protective (associated with resilience only for children with ADHD), and some were beneficial only for children without ADHD.

Keywords: ADHD; positive youth development; protective factors; resilience.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest:

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

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