Extending the ADHD Phenotype and Parsing Heterogeneity Via Emotional Dysregulation and Personality: A Latent Profile Analysis in College Students

Abstract

Objective:

Past work has provided support for the relevance of personality traits and emotional dysregulation (ED), individually, for characterizing ADHD phenotypes beyond symptoms in college-aged populations. Yet, no studies have attempted to integrate these constructs into current ADHD conceptualizations within the context of one another. The current study thus sought to determine whether personality traits and ED dimensions, together, could facilitate meaningful differentiation of college students meeting symptom and impairment criteria for ADHD.

Method:

Participants included 1,858 college students aged 18 to 29 years (M = 19.4 years, 70.4% female) with either self-reported ADHD diagnoses and/or clinical levels of symptoms and impairment.

Results:

Latent profile analyses provided support for a three-profile solution comprised of a Primarily Inattentive/ED Present/Emotionally Unstable profile, a Moderate ADHD Severity/ED Absent/Normative Personality Traits profile, and a High ADHD Severity/ED Absent/Normative Personality Traits profile. Consideration of ED dimensions and personality traits, namely Emotional Stability, meaningfully enriched profiles beyond ADHD sum scores. Concurrent validation of profiles suggested significant differences with respect to impairment domains and internalizing problems.

Conclusion:

Additional work is needed to characterize the integration of personality and ED into ADHD conceptualizations to inform more comprehensive assessment and treatment practices.

Keywords

ADHD emotional dysregulation personality subgrouping college students

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