Abstract
Objective
This study investigated whether current comorbid psychiatric symptoms were involved in statistical indirect associations between childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms (CAS) and functional impairment in university students.Methods
Data were collected from 110 university students who scored above the clinical threshold on the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS). Functional impairment was assessed using the Weiss Functional Impairment Rating Scale-Self-Report (WFIRS-S), and comorbid psychiatric symptoms were measured using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Regression analyses and statistical indirect-association models were used to examine the associations between CAS, comorbid psychiatric symptoms, and functional impairment across several domains.Results
Multivariate analyses showed that CAS was significantly associated with functional impairment in the family domain (p = 0.008). Current comorbid psychiatric symptoms, particularly depressive symptoms, were more strongly associated with functional impairment in the domains of life skills, self-concept, and social functioning (p = 0.042, p Conclusion
These findings suggest that comorbid psychiatric symptoms, especially depression and anxiety, may be useful to consider when interpreting functional impairment among university students with CAS. Because the study was cross-sectional and observational, implications regarding continued ADHD-related care and depression/anxiety-focused support should be viewed as hypotheses for future longitudinal and intervention studies rather than as demonstrated clinical effects.Clinical trial number
Not applicable.