The role of self‐compassion in the mental health of adults with ADHD

Abstract

Objective Evidence suggests that the poorer mental health associated with attention deficit hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is partially explained by adverse psychosocial correlates of the condition. As recent studies show that self‐compassion is negatively associated with ADHD, this study investigates if levels of self‐compassion may explain the mental health outcomes in people with ADHD compared to people without ADHD. Method A total of 543 adults with ADHD (62.72% female, 18–67 years), and 313 adults without ADHD (66.45% female, 18–82 years) completed questionnaires online to measure levels of self‐compassion and mental health. A Structural Equation Model assessed the mediating effect of self‐compassion on the relationships between ADHD and well‐being (psychological, emotional, and social), and ADHD and ill‐being (depression, anxiety, and stress). Results Findings suggest that low self‐compassion contributes to poorer mental health in adults with ADHD compared to adults without ADHD. Conclusions Thus, self‐compassion may be a potential target to improve mental health in this population. Public Health Significance This study shows that self‐compassion is an important factor in the mental health of adults with ADHD and provides preliminary evidence for the use of self‐compassion interventions to improve mental health outcomes in adults with ADHD.

The indirect effect of self-compassion in the association between autistic traits and anxiety/depression: A cross-sectional study in autistic and non-autistic adults

“…Considering shame and self-blame are also linked with high levels of avoidance and guilt (Gilbert & Woodyatt, 2017), low self-compassion may contribute significantly to mental health difficulties in autistic people. Similar relationships have recently been observed in the context of ADHD (Beaton et al, 2022). More specifically, lower levels of self-compassion were found to contribute to poorer mental health in adults with ADHD compared to adults without ADHD.…”

Italian University Students’ Resilience during the COVID-19 Lockdown—A Structural Equation Model about the Relationship between Resilience, Emotion Regulation and Well-Being

“…SEM was used to model the effect of resilience and emotion regulation difficulty on ill-being (depression, anxiety, stress) measured at baseline and at follow-up and were also loaded onto a global latent factor of "Mental Health" to control for any shared variance across variables [27].…”

Strengths and Weaknesses of Everyday Financial Knowledge and Judgment Skills of Adults with ADHD

“…Indeed, according to the dual-pathway model of decision-making, both motivational/affective and deliberative/analytic processing of information are involved in the decision-making process, including financial decision-making [32][33][34]. Since the deliberative/analytical processing of information relies strongly on executive functioning, attention, and memory, and because many studies have demonstrated that adults with ADHD have impairments in these cognitive functions [2,3,5,6] and in affective functioning [7,35,36], these symptoms of ADHD might take their toll on financial competence and financial performance in everyday life. However, since ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition, it might also be that adolescents and young adults with this condition have difficulties acquiring sufficient financial knowledge and the judgment skills needed for everyday life.…”

“…Numerous studies indicate that ADHD is associated with impairments in cognition, including attention, memory, speed of information processing, and executive functioning [2][3][4][5][6]. Furthermore, adults with ADHD often experience difficulties with affective functioning, including symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress [7]. Together, these difficulties in cognitive and affective functioning can have a negative impact on functioning in the everyday lives of adults with ADHD, including educational, occupational, social, and financial functioning [8][9][10][11].…”