News: ADHD Can Cause Lifelong Problems, Study Finds - US News and World Report

ADHD Can Cause Lifelong Problems, Study Finds

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder that persists into adulthood may affect physical and mental health

If children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, continue to have the condition in adulthood, a new study suggests that they may face an array of physical and mental health issues.

The study, which spanned more than 30 years, found that people who had ADHD as teens and adults face a greater risk of stress, work problems, financial troubles, physical health issues and additional mental health issues, such as depression or antisocial personality disorder.  

They also had difficulty in terms of work and experienced a great deal of financial stress.  82 percent higher odds of having impaired physical health. They were also more than twice as likely to have another mental health problem

 The study included 551 children. Seventy-two of those children were diagnosed with ADHD in 1975 when they were between the ages of 14 and 16. The researchers followed up with the children as they grew, and the final of five outcome surveys was given at an average age of 37.

ADHD Study - US News and World Report 

More Literature Review

Yuan, Anastasia S. Vogt, RACIAL COMPOSITION OF NEIGHBORHOOD AND EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING. Sociological Spectrum; Jan/Feb2008, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p105-129.

Living in a higher percentage same-race neighborhood improves the emotional well-being of Blacks and Hispanics; although, it is related to different aspects of emotional well-being. Social support explains part of this relationship for Blacks.

Singh, M. Predicting General Well-Being From Emotional Intelligence and Three Broad Personality Traits. Journal of Applied Social Psychology; Mar2008, Vol. 38 Issue 3, p635-646.

EI was related but distinct from the 3 personality variables. Trait-EI demonstrated the strongest correlation with job satisfaction, but predicted general well-being no better than Neuroticism. In regression analyses, trait-EI predicted l variance in the well-being criteria, beyond the 3 personality traits. It was concluded that trait-EI may be useful in examining dispositional influences on psychological well-being.

Ryan, R. ON HAPPINESS AND HUMAN POTENTIALS: A Review of Research on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being. Annual Review of Psychology; 2001, Vol. 52 Issue 1, p141, 26pgs.

Lit. review of well-being. Social class and wealth as predictors of well-being; Physical health and its relations to well-being; Research on differences in well-being across time and place.

Sorting Through the Literature

Smith, Timothy B., Cultural values and happiness. American Psychologist, Vol. 55(10). From PsycARTICLES

refers to Csikszentmihalyi's research correlating happiness, not with money or wealth, but with the experience of FLOW. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1999). If we are so rich, why aren't we happy? American Psychologist, 54, 821–827. Thinks M. C. made a mistake in claiming it is causation. Hypothesizes that losing oneself is the basis for happiness, as other cultures emphasize this (and connecting with others) and find happiness. "If losing oneself in a project, relationship, or dream is followed by a very positive condition, it does not mean that the experience itself caused happiness. It is equally likely that losing oneself is the causative factor... research supports the tenet that the less people focus on themselves, the happier they are (e.g., Nolen-Hoeksema & Davis, 1999). Moreover, the quality of a person's connection with others is often the best predictor of therapy outcome and mental health (Hubble, Duncan, & Miller, 1999). "

Lyubomirsky, Sonja.

Why are some people happier than others? The role of cognitive and motivational processes in well-being. American Psychologist, Vol. 56(3). From PsycARTICLES.

Why and how is happiness important??

One of the most salient and significant dimensions of human experience and emotional life is happines. Aristotle's (trans. 1974) two millennia-old argument that happiness is the whole aim and end of human existence. Why some people are happier than others is important for both theoretical and practical reasons, and the pursuit of its answer should be a central goal of a positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). people rank the pursuit of happiness as one of their most cherished goals in life (Diener & Oishi, 2000; Diener, Suh, Smith, & Shao, 1995; Freedman, 1978; Triandis, Bontempo, Leung, & Hui, 1990; for an exception, see Lyubomirsky, 2000). Furthermore, happiness appears to have a number of positive by-products, which may benefit not only individuals, but families, communities, and societies (see Myers, 1992; Veenhoven, 1988, for reviews). a great deal of research has addressed this question. the general conclusion from almost a century of research on the determinants of well-being is that objective circumstances, demographic variables, and life events are correlated with happiness less strongly than intuition and everyday experience tell us they ought to be (cf. Diener et al., 1999; Lyubomirsky & Ross, 1999). By several estimates, all of these variables put together account for no more than 8% to 15% of the variance in happiness (e.g., Andrews & Withey, 1976; Argyle, 1999; Diener, 1984;Diener et al., 1999).

Not wealth

remarkably small associations between happiness and wealth, such as Myers's (2000) observation that as Americans' personal income has nearly tripled in the last half century, their happiness levels have remained the same, and Diener and colleagues' finding that the wealthiest Americans—those earning more than $10 million annually—report levels of personal happiness only trivially greater than their less affluent peers (Diener, Horwitz, & Emmons, 1985).

Furnham, A. & Petrides, K. V. TRAIT EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND HAPPINESS. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal; 2003, Vol. 31 Issue 8, p815-823.

measures of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI), happiness, personality, and cognitive ability. Neuroticism was negatively related to happiness, whereas Extraversion and Openness to Experience were positively related to it. The positive relationship between trail EI (not cognitive ability) and happiness persisted in the presence of the Big Five. In contrast, the Big Five did not account for a significant amount of happiness variance when trait EI was partialled out.