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. 2023 Aug;27(10):1065-1074.
doi: 10.1177/10870547231168334. Epub 2023 Apr 25.

Longitudinal Associations Between COVID-19 Stress and the Mental Health of Children With ADHD

Ainsley Summerton  1 , Susannah T Bellows  1 , Elizabeth M Westrupp  1   2 , Mark A Stokes  1 , David Coghill  3   4   5 , Mark A Bellgrove  6 , Delyse Hutchinson  1   4   7 , Stephen P Becker  8   9 , Glenn Melvin  1 , Jon Quach  3   4 , Daryl Efron  3   4   5 , Argyris Stringaris  10   11 , Christel M Middeldorp  12   13 , Tobias Banaschewski  14 , Emma Sciberras  1   3   4
Affiliations

Longitudinal Associations Between COVID-19 Stress and the Mental Health of Children With ADHD

Ainsley Summerton et al. J Atten Disord. 2023 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the longitudinal associations between COVID-19 induced stress (related to COVID-19 restrictions/changes), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, oppositional symptoms, and mental health outcomes (negative affect, anxiety, depression, and irritability) in children with ADHD during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method: Parents of 140 Australian children with ADHD (aged 5-17 years) completed an online survey in May 2020 during stay-at-home restrictions and 12-months later.

Results: Baseline COVID-19 stress was associated with increased total ADHD symptom severity (β = .21, p = .007) and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms (β = .23, p = .002) at 12-months, after accounting for covariates (i.e., child age, gender, ADHD medication, socio-economic status, and baseline symptoms). Despite some indication of associations between baseline COVID-19 stress and 12-month oppositional symptoms and negative affect, these were attenuated when adjusting for baseline symptoms.

Conclusions: The study provides initial evidence of the medium-term impacts of pandemic-related stress for children with ADHD.

Keywords: ADHD; COVID-19; longitudinal; mental health; stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: A/Prof Sciberras receives royalties from her book published through Elsevier: Sleep and ADHD: An Evidence-Based Guide to Assessment and Treatment. Prof Coghill has received honoraria from Medice, Novartis, Servier, and Takeda, and royalties from Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. A/Prof Becker has received grant funding from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education; National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH); and Cincinnati Children’s Research Foundation (CCRF) and has received book honoraria from Guilford Press. A/Prof Sciberras, Prof Coghill, and Prof Middeldorp are on the board of the Australian ADHD Professionals Association (AADPA). Prof Bellgrove is President of AADPA, which is leading the development of National Clinical Guidelines for ADHD in Australia. Prof Banaschewski served in an advisory or consultancy role for eye level, Infectopharm, Lundbeck, Medice, Neurim Pharmaceuticals, Oberberg GmbH, Roche, and Takeda. He received conference support or speaker’s fee by Janssen, Medice, and Takeda. He received royalties from Hogrefe, Kohlhammer, CIP Medien, Oxford University Press; the present work is unrelated to these relationships.

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