Emotionality and temperament in attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity

Abstract

Those who suffer from attention deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity (ADHD) find it difficult to direct their emotions in order to solve challenges or problems. This alteration in emotional self-regulation implies greater disability than that attributed to the traditional dimensions -attention deficit and hyperactivity- with an evident impact on the development of personality. To review how the confluence of poor self-regulatory skills, emotion awareness and autonomy, and a particular temperament profile increase the risk of children diagnosed with ADHD for the development of a range of adjustment problems in childhood and adolescence. The typical temperamental profile of children with ADHD is characterised by high emotional reactivity and poor self-regulatory skills. The effects of the interaction of emotionality and temperament in ADHD can be either direct on the child himself or indirect on the environment, interactional by fitting or mismatch with environmental expectations, and transactional due to their dynamic relation with other characteristics in the child's environment. The confluence of poor self-regulation skills, emotion awareness and autonomy, and a temperament profile with a higher novelty seeking and lower persistence increase the risk of children diagnosed with ADHD for the development of a series of adjustment and adaptation problems in childhood and adolescence.