Adult ADHD: Associations with Personality and Other Psychopathology

Abstract

The goals of this study were to explicate adult ADHD's relations with personality at both the domain and facet levels and to examine its associations with other psychological symptoms. Community members (N=294) completed measures assessing ADHD inattentive and hyperactive/ impulsive symptoms, five-factor model personality domains and facets, and other internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Inattentiveness showed strong negative relations with conscientiousness and extraversion and strong positive relations with neuroticism; in contrast, hyperactivity/impulsivity related negatively to agreeableness, positively to extraversion, and weakly to neuroticism. Whereas inattentiveness emerged as a positive predictor of internalizing psychopathology-and depression in particular-hyperactivity/impulsivity related weakly to internalizing but more strongly to externalizing psychopathology. Thus, inattentive and hyperactive/ impulsive symptoms showed differential relations with personality-at both the domain and facet levels-and with other psychological symptoms. These results demonstrate the value in examining ADHD's relations with personality facets and with a wide range of psychopathology within the same study.Keywords Adult ADHD . Personality . Facets . Comorbidity . PsychopathologyAttention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is commonly studied as a Bchildhood disorder,^but symptoms of this disorder often persist into adulthood, with adult prevalence rates estimated at 4.4 % ). According to the Fifth Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association 2013), an ADHD diagnosis must be specified as a predominately inattentive (ADHD-IA) presentation, a predominately hyperactive/impulsive (ADHD-HI) presentation, or a combined presentation if criteria for both inattentiveness and hyperactivity/impulsivity are met. The presentation specifiers replaced the inattentive, hyperactive/impulsive, and combined Bsubtypes^from DSM-IV, and they are not assumed to be stable over time (as the discrete subtypes were). These changes occurred as a result of research indicating that DSM-IV ADHD subtypes provided a clinically convenient method for describing symptoms, but did not reflect empirically distinct symptom profiles (Willcutt et al. 2012). Relations with PersonalityResearch examining the associations between personality and psychopathology has been influential in informing structural models of psychopathology and comorbidity, such that Section III of DSM-5 includes a trait dimensional scheme largely derived from the five-factor model of personality (Krueger et al. 2012). Martel et al. (2010 illustrate how personality can be used as a framework for understanding heterogeneity in ADHD presentations, finding evidence for three subgroups in children with ADHD: one characterized by low extraversion (associated primarily with ADHD-IA), one by high extraversion (associated with combined ADHD presentations), and one by impulsivity/poor control (also associated with combined ADHD pr...

Sluggish cognitive tempo and personality: Links to BIS/BAS sensitivity and the five factor model

“…No specific hypothesis was made regarding agreeableness or openness.ADHD-IN symptoms would be uniquely associated with higher BIS and neuroticism, as well as lower conscientiousness. We expected ADHD-IN to be unassociated or negatively associated with BAS, extraversion, agreeableness, and openness (Hundt et al, 2008; Knouse et al, 2013; Nigg et al, 2002; Parker et al, 2004; Rabiner et al, 2008; Stanton & Watson, 2016). ADHD-HI symptoms would be uniquely associated with higher BAS, extraversion, and neuroticism, as well as lower agreeableness.…”

“…We expected ADHD-HI to be unassociated or negatively associated with BIS, as well as unassociated with openness. No specific hypothesis was made regarding conscientiousness (Hundt et al, 2008; Knouse et al, 2013; Mitchell, 2010; Mitchell & Nelson-Gray, 2006; Nigg et al, 2002; Parker et al, 2004; Rabiner et al, 2008; Stanton & Watson, 2016). Anxiety/depression symptoms would be uniquely associated with higher BIS and neuroticism, as well as lower BAS, extraversion, and conscientiousness.…”

Advancing understanding of the classification of broad autism phenotype and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptom dimensions within the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology

“…3 A number of studies examining psychopathology structure also support this classification of ADHD symptoms as externalizing in nature, 11 with some proposals created to inform knowledge of the DSM-5 metastructure describing ADHD as overlapping more closely with other externalizing disorders than with NDDs such as ASD. 12 However, ADHD symptoms also show meaningful cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with symptoms such as dysphoric mood that are more indicative of internalizing than externalizing pathology, 13,14 which has led to proposals suggesting that experiences of negative affect and difficulties regulating them may be core ADHD features. 15,16 These discrepancies regarding the optimal classification of ADHD symptom dimensions, as well as the lack of understanding regarding classification of ASD dimensions, may be exacerbated by many prior studies focusing solely on global, composite diagnostic ratings rather than conducting analyses using specific symptom scores that may show differential associations with personality and other forms of psychopathology (e.g.…”

The Five-Factor Model of Personality and the Structure of Psychopathology in Adolescence

“…It was mostly associated with the externalizing spectrum (i.e., aggression and antisocial behavior) (Kotov et al, 2010;Mezquita et al, 2015), and also with the p factor (Caspi et al, 2014;Castellanos-Ryan et al, 2016;Etkin et al, 2020;Mann et al, 2020). Our results also showed, as predicted, that the conscientiousness onset was negatively associated with the externalizing factor (De Bolle et al, 2012;Mann et al, 2020), hyperactivity/attention problems (Mann et al, 2020;Stanton & Watson, 2016), and the p factor (Etkin et al, 2020;Mann et al, 2020), although we found a significant association with scales pertaining to the internalizing factor too. Moreover, conscientiousness' growth was negatively associated with p and hyperactivity/attention problem factors, which differs from Mann et al (2020).…”