(PS11-A21) Childhood ADHD and Subsequent Trauma Exposure in Young Adulthood: The Role of Deviant Peer Association

Individuals with ADHD are at an increased risk of lifetime trauma exposure. However, previous studies examining the association between ADHD and trauma have been limited to primarily White samples and cross-sectional or retrospective data. Furthermore, research has yet to examine specific mechanisms that may explain the association between ADHD and experiencing traumatic events. One construct that may account for the relationship between ADHD and trauma is deviant peer association. Symptoms of ADHD function as a significant risk factor for comorbid deviant peer affiliation. Additionally, peer deviancy has been associated with a heightened risk for experiencing potentially traumatic events. As a result, deviant peer affiliation may be one underlying mechanism by which ADHD predicts subsequent trauma exposure. The present study sought to examine whether peer deviancy mediates the relationship between childhood ADHD symptoms and subsequent trauma exposure.   

Data were analyzed from a 20-year longitudinal cohort study. Participants (n = 509; 48.7% female) had a mean age of 6.2 years (SD ± 0.34) at study onset. The vast majority of participants identified as Black (89.6%) and the remaining 10.4% identified as White. Participants’ teachers completed the Teacher Observation of Classroom Adaptation-Revised, which was used to derive a continuous measure of ADHD symptoms. A dichotomous variable was created to assess whether participants experienced a traumatic event between wave 17 (Mage = 23.28 years, SD = 0.43) and wave 20 (Mage = 25.9 years, SD = 0.55) as assessed via the C-DISC-IV. To measure deviant peer association, participants completed the Exposure to Deviant Peers self-report scale to assess peer engagement in antisocial behavior at Wave 16.

            Gender and race were included as covariates in the analyses. Preacher and Hayes’s PROCESS Macro with 5,000 bootstrap resamples was employed to investigate the hypothesis that deviant peer association mediates the effect of childhood ADHD symptoms on subsequent trauma exposure in young adulthood. Results indicated that ADHD symptoms in childhood were a significant predictor of deviant peer association in young adulthood, b = .038, SE = .012, 95% CI [.0148,.0618], p < .01, and that deviant peer association in young adulthood was a significant predictor of young adult trauma exposure, b = .084, SE = .033, 95% CI [.0205,1484], p < .01. Analyses revealed a significant indirect effect in that deviant peer associations mediated the relationship between childhood ADHD symptoms and trauma exposure in young adulthood, b = .003, SE = .0016, 95% CI [.0008,.0071].

Given the downstream effects that trauma exposure has on individuals, it is important to address constructs that mitigate the risk of exposure. Targeting peer deviancy in adolescents and young adults, especially in those with elevated ADHD symptoms, may be one strategy for reducing the risk of trauma. One possible method of addressing peer deviancy could be empirically-supported social skills training for children with ADHD to decrease the likelihood of associating with deviant peers. Increasing familial support, through interventions like parent management training, may also mitigate the influence of deviant peers on adolescents with ADHD.