A preliminary 'shortlist' of individual, family, and social-community assets to promote resilience in pediatric ADHD

Background: Understanding factors that promote resilience in pediatric ADHD is important though highly understudied. Aims: The current study sought to provide a preliminary ‘shortlist’ of key individual, family, and social-community assets among children with ADHD. Methods and Procedures: The study included well-characterized, clinically-evaluated samples of children with (n=108) and without ADHD (n=98) ages 8–13 years (M=10.31; 41.3% girls; 66.5% White/Non-Hispanic). All subsets regression and dominance analysis identified the subset of predictors that accounted for the most variance in broad-based resilience for children with ADHD and their relative importance. Findings were compared for children with versus without ADHD as preliminary evidence regarding the extent to which identified assets are promotive, protective, or conditionally helpful. Outcomes and Results: Higher levels of peer acceptance, social skills, and academic performance were top predictors of resilience among children with ADHD. Better child working memory, attention, higher levels of hyperactivity, older age, and fewer parent self-reported mental health concerns were also identified as predictors of resilience in ADHD. Both overlapping and unique factors were associated with resilience for children with versus without ADHD. Conclusions and Results: These results, if replicated, provide a strong preliminary basis for strength-based basic/applied research on key assets that promote resilience in ADHD.