Cognitive emotion regulation and learning effectiveness in college students with ADHD symptoms

BackgroundCollege 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.ObjectivesWe examined whether maladaptive CERS predicted learning effectiveness, and whether this relation was moderated by ADHD symptoms.DesignA cross-sectional online survey.MethodsCollege students (N = 4,183; Mage = 19.24; 70.1% female) at eight universities completed a battery as part of a larger study.ResultsCollege 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.ConclusionIncreased 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.