The Ripple Effect of ADHD in Adolescents: Self-Perceptions and Social Relationships

Adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are highly vulnerable. Although their hyperactive symptoms tend to decrease from childhood through adolescence, their inattentive symptoms remain stable (see Larsson, 2020, for review). Their academic, social, and emotion regulation difficulties persist, and they are at risk for co-occurring oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, anxiety, and depressive disorders. Despite this vulnerability, as indicated by Russell Barkley in his forward to the recently published book on adolescents with ADHD (Becker, 2020), research on these adolescents is limited compared to research on children and adults with ADHD. Our concerns about the paucity of research that would inform assessment and treatment stimulated my graduate students and I to embark on a research project that we called the Ripple Effect of Adolescent ADHD. The ripple effects we investigated are self-perceptions, family relationships, and peer relationships. The results of our studies have been published in scholarly journals and book chapters and several other articles are in preparation. In this special issue, we focus on some of our studies on self-perceptions and friendships. I am dedicating this special issue to Amanda Todd, a 15-year old girl with ADHD who died by suicide on October 10, 2012. Amanda lived in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. She was persuaded by an adult predator posing as an adolescent to lift her shirt and expose herself. The predator then took a photo of Amanda and proceeded to blackmail and threaten her for more intimate photos (now known as sextortion). When Amanda did not respond, the intimate photo was posted on the Internet for all to see. She was subsequently a victim of physical, verbal, relational, and cyberbullying by peers and lost many of her friends. She became severely anxious and depressed. Weeks prior to her death, Amanda created a You Tube video that poignantly told her story. Since her death, her mother has created the Amanda Todd Legacy Society which is a