Abstract
Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience difficulties related to emotional reactivity and regulation. The current study examines differences in the emotional reactivity and regulation of children with and without ADHD in the context of their real-life experiences of negative emotion using a novel ecologically valid methodology. Eighty-three 8–12-year-old children (46 ADHD, 38 non-ADHD) participated in the study. Children completed the negative emotion narrative recall task, a novel task whereby children provided a narrative recall of a real-life event where they experienced negative emotion. ANCOVA indicated children with ADHD recalled significantly more overall frustration and intense frustration than children without ADHD. Children with ADHD exhibiting more negative emotional reactivity while recalling negative emotions than children without ADHD. The current study suggests that children with ADHD are uniquely impacted by negative emotional experiences and represents an important step in understanding the emotional reactivity and regulation of children with ADHD.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th edn. American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC
American Psychiatric Association (2013) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th edn. American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC
Anastopoulos AD, Smith TF, Garrett ME, Morrissey-Kane E, Schatz NK, Sommer JL et al (2011) Self-regulation of emotion, functional impairment, and comorbidity among children with AD/HD. J Atten Disord 15(7):583–592. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054710370567
Barkley RA (2010) Deficient emotional self-regulation: a core component of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. J ADHD Relat Disord 1(2):5–37
Barkley RA, Anastopoulos AD, Guevremont DC, Fletcher KE (1992) Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in adolescents: mother-adolescent interactions, family beliefs and conflicts, and maternal psychopathology. J Abnorm Child Psychol 30:263–288
Baumeister RE, Stillwell A, Wotman SR (1990) Victim and perpetrator accounts of interpersonal conflict: autobiographical narratives about anger. J Pers Soc Psychol 59:994–1005. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.5.994
Beauchaine T, Gatzke-Kopp L, Neuhaus E, Chipman J, Reid MJ, Webster-Stratton C (2013) Sympathetic- and parasympathetic-linked cardiac function and prediction of externalizing behavior, emotion regulation, and prosocial behavior among preschoolers treated for ADHD. J Consult Clin Psychol 81:481–493. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032302
Berlin L, Bohlin G, Nyberg L, Janols L-O (2004) How well do measures of inhibition and other executive functions discriminate between children with ADHD and controls? Child Neuropsychol 10:1–13. https://doi.org/10.1076/chin.10.1.1.26243
Carlson GA (1998) Mania and ADHD: comorbidity or confusion. J Affect Disord 51:177–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-0327(98)00179-7
Carlson CL, Lahey BB, Frame CL, Walker J, Hynd GW (1987) Sociometric status of clinic-referred children with attention deficit disorders with and without hyperactivity. J Abnorm Child Psychol 15:537–547
Cole PM, Martin SE, Dennis TA (2004) Emotion regulation as a scientific construct: methodological challenges and directions for child development research. Child Dev 75:317–333. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00673.x
Cyders MA, Smith GT (2008) Emotion-based dispositions to rash action: positive and negative urgency. Psychol Bull 134:807–828. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013341
Davidson D, Luo Z, Burden MJ (2001) Children’s recall of emotional behaviours, emotional labels, and nonemotional behaviours: Does emotion enhance memory? Cogn Emot 15:1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930125794
Eisenberg N, Spinrad TL, Eggum ND (2010) Emotion-related self-regulation and its relation to children’s maladjustment. Annu Rev Clin Psychol 6:495–525. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.121208.131208
Evangelista NM, Owens JS, Golden CM, Pelham WE (2008) The positive illusory bias: Do inflated self-perceptions in children with ADHD generalize to perceptions of others? J Abnorm Child Psychol 36:779–791. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-007-9210-8
Factor PI, Reyes RA, Rosen PJ (2014) Emotional impulsivity in children with ADHD associated with comorbid—not ADHD—symptomatology. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 36:530–541. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-014-9428-z
Graziano P, Derefinko K (2013) Cardiac vagal control and children’s adaptive functioning: a meta-analysis. Biol Psychol 94:22–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.04.011
Graziano PA, McNamara JP, Geffken GR, Reid AM (2013) Differentiating co-occurring behavior problems in children with ADHD: patterns of emotional reactivity and executive functioning. J Atten Disord 17:249–260. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054711428741
Gross JJ (1998) The emerging field of emotion regulation: an integrative review. Rev Gen Psychol 2(3):271
Gross JJ (2002) Emotion regulation: affective, cognitive, and social consequences. Psychophysiology 39:281–91. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048577201393198
Guerts H, Embrechts M (2008) Language profiles in ASD, SLI, and ADHD. J Autism Dev Disord 38:1931–1943. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-008-0587-1
Hannesdottir KD, Ollendick TH (2007) The role of emotion regulation in the treatment of child anxiety disorders. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 10:275–293. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10567-007-0024-6
Hepler JB (1992) Using power analyses to examine post hoc trends in small samples. Small Group Res 23:408–421. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496492233008
Hinshaw SP, Melnick SM (1995) Peer relationships in boys with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder with and without comorbid aggression. Dev Psychopathol 7:627–647. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579400006751
Jensen SA, Rosen LA (2004) Emotional reactivity in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. J Atten Disord 8:53–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/108705470400800203
Kim S, Nordling JK, Yoon JE, Boldt LJ, Kochanska G (2013) Effortful control in “hot” and “cool” tasks differentially predicts children’s behavior problems and academic performance. J Abnorm Child Psychol 41:43–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-012-9661-4
Kop WJ, Synowski SJ, Newell ME, Schmidt LA, Waldstein SR, Fox NA (2011) Autonomic nervous system reactivity to positive and negative mood induction: the role of acute psychological responses and frontal electrocortical activity. Biol Psychol 86:230–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.12.003
Liwag MD, Stein NL (1995) Children’s memory for emotional events—the importance of retrieval cues. J Exp Child Psychol 60:2–31. https://doi.org/10.1006/jecp.1995.1029
López-Martín S, Albert J, Fernández-Jaén A, Carretié L (2015) Emotional response inhibition in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: neural and behavioural data. Psychol Med 3:1–15. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291714003195
Macfie J, Swan SA (2009) Representations of the caregiver-child relationship and of the self, and emotion regulation in the narratives of young children whose mothers have borderline personality disorder. Dev Psychopathol 21:993–1011. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579409000534
Maedgen JW, Carlson CL (2000) Social functioning and emotional regulation in the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder subtypes social functioning and emotional regulation in the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder subtypes. J Clin Child Psychol 29:30–42. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15374424jccp2901
Martel MM, Nigg JT (2006) Child ADHD and personality/temperament traits of reactive and effortful control, resiliency, and emotionality. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 47:1175–1183. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01629.x
McCaskill JW, Lakey B (2000) Perceived support, social undermining, and emotion: Idiosyncratic and shared perspectives of adolescents and their families. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 26(7):820–832
MTA Cooperative Group (2004) National institute of mental health multimodal treatment study of ADHD follow-up: changes in effectiveness and growth after the end of treatment. Pediatrics 113(4):762–769
Musser ED, Backs RW, Schmitt CF, Ablow JC, Measelle JR, Nigg JT (2011) Emotion regulation via the autonomic nervous system in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). J Abnorm Child Psychol 39:841–852. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-011-9499-1
Musser ED, Galloway-Long HS, Frick PJ, Nigg JT (2013) Emotion regulation and heterogeneity in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 52(163–171):e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2012.11.009
Okado I, Mueller CW, Nakamura BJ (2016) Positive and negative affect in clinic-referred youth with ADHD. J Atten Disord 20(1):53–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054713478466
Oppenheim D, Nir A, Warren S, Emde RN (1997) Emotion regulation in mother-child narrative co-construction: associations with children’s narratives and adaptation. Dev Psychol 33:284–294. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.33.2.284
Rosen PJ, Factor PI (2015) Emotional impulsivity and emotional and behavioral difficulties among children with ADHD: an ecological momentary assessment study. J Atten Disord 19:779–793. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054712463064
Rosen PJ, Milich R, Harris MJ (2012) Dysregulated negative emotional reactivity as a predictor of chronic peer victimization in childhood. Aggressive Behav 38:414–427. https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21434
Rosen PJ, Walerius DM, Fogleman ND, Factor PI (2015) The association of emotional lability and emotional and behavioral difficulties among children with and without ADHD. Atten Defic Hyperact Disord 7:281–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-015-0175-0
Rothbart MK, Derryberry D (1981) Theoretical issues in temperament. In: Lewis M, Taft LT (eds) Developmental disabilities. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 383–400
Scime M, Norvilitis JM (2006) Task performance and response to frustration in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Psychol Sch 43:377–386. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.20151
Shaffer D, Fisher P, Lucas CP, Dulcan MK, Schwab-Stone ME (2000) NIMH diagnostic interview schedule for children version IV (NIMH DISC-IV): description, differences from previous versions, and reliability of some common diagnoses. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 39:28–38. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-200001000-00014
Shaw P, Stringaris A, Nigg J, Leibenluft E (2014) Emotion dysregulation in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Am J Psychiatry 171(3):276–293
Sheppes G, Gross JJ (2011) Is timing everything? Temporal considerations in emotion regulation. Pers Soc Psychol Rev 15(4):319–331. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868310395778
Shields A, Ryan RM, Cicchetti D (2001) Narrative representations of caregivers and emotion dysregulation in maltreated kids. Dev Psychol 37:321–337. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.37.3.321
Southam-Gerow MA, Kendall PC (2002) Emotion regulation and understanding: implications for child psychopathology and therapy. Clin Psychol Rev 22:189–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-7358(01)00087-3
Stone AA, Schwartz JE, Neale JM, Shiffman S, Marco CA, Hickcox M et al (1998) A comparison of coping assessed by ecological momentary assessment and retrospective recall. J Pers Soc Psychol 74:1670–1680. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1670
Subcommittee on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder; Steering Committee on Quality Improvement and Management, Wolraich M, Brown L, Brown RT, DuPaul G, Earls M, Feldman HM, Ganiats TG, Kaplanek B, Meyer B, Perrin J, Pierce K, Reiff M, Stein MT, Visser S (2011) ADHD: clinical practice guideline for the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children and adolescents. Pediatrics 128:1007–1022
Thompson RA (1994) Emotion regulation: a theme in search of definition. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 59:25–52. https://doi.org/10.2307/1166137
US Census Bureau (2010) Overview of race and Hispanic origin: 2010. http://www.census.gov/prod/. Accessed 22 June 2017
Van Lang NDJ, Tulen JHM, Kallen VL, Rosbergen B, Dieleman G, Ferdinand RF (2007) Autonomic reactivity in clinically referred children attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder versus anxiety disorder. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 16:71–78. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-006-0575-y
Walcott CM, Landau S (2004) The relation between disinhibition and emotion regulation in boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 33:772–782. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15374424jccp3304_12
Zeman J, Cassano M, Perry-Parrish C, Stegall S (2006) Emotion regulation in children and adolescents. J Dev Behav Pediatr 27:155–168. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579406060536
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical standards
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
All authors contributed equally to this manuscript, authors listed alphabetically.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Fogleman, N.D., Leaberry, K.D., Rosen, P.J. et al. How do children with and without ADHD talk about frustration?: Use of a novel emotion narrative recall task. ADHD Atten Def Hyp Disord 10, 297–307 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-018-0255-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-018-0255-z