32 Effects of Emotion Regulation and Emotional Lability/Negativity on Academic Achievement Among Youth With and Without ADHD

Abstract

Objective:

Youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), characterized by symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity, often experience challenges with emotion regulation (ER) and/or emotional lability/negativity (ELN).^1-3 Prior work has shown that difficulties with ER and ELN among young children contribute to lower academic achievement.^4-6 To date, research examining associations between ADHD and academic achievement have primarily focused on the roles of inattentive symptoms and executive functioning.^7-8 However, preliminary work among youth with ADHD suggests significant associations between disruptions in emotional functioning and poor academic outcomes.^9-10 The current study will examine associations between ER, ELN, and specific subdomains of academic achievement (i.e., reading, spelling, math) among youth with and without ADHD.

Participants and Methods:

Forty-six youth (52% male; M_age=9.52 years; 76.1% Hispanic/Latino; 21 with ADHD) and their parents were recruited as part of an ongoing study. Parents completed the Disruptive Behavior Disorders Rating Scale¹¹ and Emotion Regulation Checklist¹² about their child. Youth completed the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence-II¹³ and three subtests [Spelling (SP), Numerical Operations (NO), Word Reading (WR)] of the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-III.¹⁴ Univariate analysis of variance assessed differences in emotional functioning and academic achievement among youth with and without ADHD. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between emotional factors and the three subtests of academic achievement.

Results:

Youth with ADHD exhibited significantly higher ELN (M=30.7, SD=8.7) compared to their peers (M=23.2, SD=5.8), when controlling for child age, sex, and diagnoses of conduct disorder and/or oppositional defiant disorder [F(1,41)=8.96, p<.01, ŋp²=.18]. With respect to ER, youth with (M=24.8, SD=4.2) and without ADHD (M=25.8, SD=4.3) did not differ [F(1,41)=.51, p=.48]. Surprisingly, within this sample, ADHD diagnostic status was not significantly associated with performance on any of the academic achievement subtests [WR: F(1,41)=.29, p=.59; NO: F(1,41)=.91, p=.35; SP: F(1,41)=2.14, p=.15]. Among all youth, ER was significantly associated with WR (r=.31, p=.04) and SP (r=.35, p=.02), whereas ELN was associated with performance on NO (r=-.30, p=.04). When controlling for child age, sex, IQ, and ER within the full sample, higher ELN was associated with lower scores on the NO subtest (b=-.56, SE=.26, p=.04). The associations between higher ER and WR scores (b=1.12, SE=.51, p=.03), as well as higher ER and SP scores (b=1.47, SE=.56, p=.01), were significant when controlling for child age and sex, but not ELN and IQ (p=.73 and p=.64, respectively).

Conclusions:

As expected, youth with ADHD had higher ELN, although they did not differ from their peers in terms of ER. Results identified distinct associations between ER and higher reading/spelling performance, as well as ELN and lower math performance across all youth. Thus, findings suggest that appropriate emotional coping skills may be most important for reading and spelling, while emotional reactivity appears most salient to math performance outcomes. In particular, ELN may be a beneficial target for intervention, especially with respect to improvement in math problem-solving skills. Future work should account for executive functioning skills, expand the academic achievement domains to include fluency and more complex academic skills, and assess longitudinal pathways within a larger sample.