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Loneliness Accounts for the Association Between Diagnosed Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder and Symptoms of Depression Among Adolescents

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Abstract

The heightened levels of peer relationship difficulties associated with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) potentially predispose adolescents to feelings of loneliness and depressive symptoms. The current study explores whether feelings of loneliness mediate the effects of ADHD on depressive symptoms. Eighty-four adolescents (Mage = 13.01 years, 75% Male) in Western Australian schools completed mental health and wellbeing surveys. Multivariate analysis of variance assessed whether adolescents with ADHD had greater loneliness and depressive symptoms, and mediation analysis explored whether loneliness mediated the relationship between ADHD and depressive symptoms. Adolescents with ADHD reported significantly greater depressive symptomatology and feelings of isolation and lower quality of friendships. Together, friendship and isolation related loneliness fully mediated the relationship between ADHD and depressive symptoms. Loneliness is associated with depression in adolescents with ADHD and may be an important consideration when addressing symptoms of depression among young people diagnosed with ADHD.

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This study was funded by a grant through the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation (Healthway) (#22951) to Stephen Houghton as principal investigator.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, 6018, Australia

    Stephen Houghton, David Lawrence, Simon C. Hunter, Corinne Zadow, Michael Kyron, Roger Paterson, Richard Christie & Mark Brandtman

  2. School of Psychological Sciences and Health, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

    Stephen Houghton & Simon C. Hunter

  3. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Annemaree Carroll

Authors
  1. Stephen Houghton
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  2. David Lawrence
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  3. Simon C. Hunter
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  4. Corinne Zadow
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  5. Michael Kyron
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  6. Roger Paterson
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  7. Annemaree Carroll
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  8. Richard Christie
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  9. Mark Brandtman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephen Houghton.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors state that there is no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Experiment Participants

All study protocols were approved by the local Institutional Review Board (IRB approval # D11/0182591) and procedures were carried out in accordance with the approved guidelines. Informed consent and verbal assent was obtained from all participants.

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Houghton, S., Lawrence, D., Hunter, S.C. et al. Loneliness Accounts for the Association Between Diagnosed Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder and Symptoms of Depression Among Adolescents. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 42, 237–247 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-020-09791-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-020-09791-x

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