Alacha HF, Walbridge FC, Harton HC, Vasko JM, Bodalski EA, Rother Y, Lefler EK. Cognitive emotion regulation and learning effectiveness in college students with ADHD symptoms.
ANXIETY, STRESS, AND COPING 2024:1-17. [PMID:
39021066 DOI:
10.1080/10615806.2024.2379986]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2023] [Accepted: 07/09/2024] [Indexed: 07/20/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
College students with ADHD have difficulties with emotion regulation and have poorer academic skills than peers without ADHD; however, less is known regarding the relation between ADHD symptoms, maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (CERS), and learning effectiveness.
OBJECTIVES
We examined whether maladaptive CERS predicted learning effectiveness, and whether this relation was moderated by ADHD symptoms.
DESIGN
A cross-sectional online survey.
METHODS
College students (N = 4,183; Mage = 19.24; 70.1% female) at eight universities completed a battery as part of a larger study.
RESULTS
College students in our elevated ADHD group used significantly more maladaptive CERS and performed worse in three domains of learning effectiveness (i.e., Academic Self-Efficacy [ASE], Organization and Attention to Study [OAS], Stress and Time Press [STP]) than college students in our non-ADHD group. Further, ADHD symptoms moderated the relation between maladaptive CERS and OAS, such that individuals with the highest levels of ADHD symptoms were less impacted by maladaptive CERS.
CONCLUSION
Increased use of maladaptive CERS is unique to ADHD rather than lack of adaptive CERS. Also, maladaptive CERS and low ADHD symptoms interact to predict poor OAS. Interventions for college students, regardless of ADHD status, should incorporate emotion regulation components to improve learning effectiveness.
Collapse