Research has shown that when exposed to a challenging task, ADHD boys display more frustration than do non-ADHD subjects and ADHD-boys tend to quit before completing the task. Furthermore, ADHD boys attribute their failures to external factors such as effort. ADHD boys make these external attributions because of their previous experiences with effort and failures; children with ADHD have learned that despite all of the effort they exert on an activity, they will not encounter success; they feel as though their control over their successes and failures is out of their hands. ADHD children have come to this conclusion most likely as a result of receiving negative feedback from people in their environment such as their teachers or parents. These adults may blame the ADHD child for not doing well enough as a result of not trying hard enough. Children with ADHD may consider effort to be a stable and uncontrollable characteristic of themselves. Thus, trying harder would not be a relevant consideration for these boys. (13)

A child with ADHD may encounter poor academic performance, despite the extended effort on behalf of the child to do well. This can be extremely frustrating for that child; this child may figure that no matter how hard he or she tries, it never amounts to acceptable results The failure experienced in school because of ADHD impacts a childs perspective on future achievement outcomes. This may lead the child to develop a helpless response to all challenging tasks.

The learned helplessness response due to academic struggles can also provoke the onset other psychological problems such as low self-esteem and depression among children.

Research has been developed which has suggested that ADHD children have negative self-perceptions of themselves and they experience high levels of depression compared to non-ADHD children.

In one study, researchers used the Self Perception Profile for Children to measure the following things among ADHD children: childrens scholastic competence, social acceptance, athletic competence, physical appearance, behavioral conduct, and global self-worth. How children rate themselves on these dimensions reflects how competent they believe themselves to be in each aspect of their life. The results show that, with the exception of athletic competence, ADHD children rate themselves as being lower on all levels of the other competencies listed. In other words, they view themselves to be less competent than other children without ADHD. (14)

Other studies have shown that children with ADHD display more symptoms of depression when compared to other non-ADHD children. For example, a study was conducted using 114 ADHD boys and 87 non-ADHD boys, all ages 7-12 years old. The results show that the ADHD boys reported experiencing more depressive symptoms than the control group (non-ADHD boys) as well as lower academic and social self-esteem (than control group), less general happiness accompanied by increased feelings of anxiety. (15)

ADHD and its affect on the Family

Hyperactive children can emotionally bankrupt a family. (16)  ADHD is a pervasive disorder because it occurs across situations. The hyperactive, impulsive, inattentive and disruptive behaviors displayed at school are also seen in the home as well. The primary pattern of disruption involved the child with ADHD doing something that needed attention or that affected others.(17) This behavior soon erupts into more following disruptions as a result of having to live in this type environment.  For example, because of their impulsive and uncontrollable behavior, children with ADHD demand much of, of not all of, the parents attention. Siblings may become jealous that the parents are devoting all of their energy to their brother or sister. As a result of this jealously, the sibling may imitate the maladaptive behavior displayed by the ADHD child, in hopes of obtaining the same response from their parents. Also, the siblings may deal with their jealousy by taking it out on the ADHD child, creating conflict among the children. Other disruptions include inter-familial conflicts and the breakdown of communication among family members with the replacement of more fighting, yelling, anger, guilt, and denial.

Research was conducted to study siblings responses to living with a brother with ADHD. Living with a brother or sister that has ADHD can be extremely exhausting for siblings. Disruptive ADHD behaviors influence three aspects of the siblings experiences. These aspects include victimization, care taking, and sorrow and loss.

Many siblings feel as though their well-being and safety are threatened by their ADHD sibling(s). In the home environment, their ADHD brothers or sisters victimize siblings of ADHD children; siblings are the ADHDs target for verbal as well as physical acts of aggression and abuse. Verbal abuse can include the use of threats and insults and physical abuse can include punching, kicking, hitting, etc. Siblings have to constantly be on guard; because the ADHD brother or sister is often impulsive, it is impossible to predict when he or she will act out. Siblings reported that their violent and aggressive interactions with their ADHD brothers was not characteristic of normal sibling rivalry. In addition, siblings reported that in response to the ADHD childs behavior, parents tended to downplay or neglected to acknowledge the severity of the aggressive acts.

Siblings often feel as though the ADHD child controls and manipulates the home environment as well as the family activities. It is often the case that family outings will be ruined or cut short because of the ADHD childs antisocial behavior. At home, most of the time, all of the focus is placed on the ADHD child and the other children tend to feel ignored. Siblings describe feeling expected to be somewhat invisible-not requiring too much help or attention from the parents. Parents often minimized their needs because they seemed so much less significant than those of an ADHD child. (18) Siblings become resentful towards their parents for not exerting enough control over the ADHD child and for not providing equal and fair treatment among all of the children.

Siblings are  often required to bear the burden of taking care of their ADHD sibling. Parents expect the other children in the family to be a playmate and a babysitter for their ADHD sibling. For siblings, this responsibility can be very difficult because on one hand the siblings are expected to supervise their brother or sister while at the same time, the siblings are being subjected to verbal and physical abuse from their ADHD brother or sister. These siblings are caught in the middle-having to caretake and supervise very difficult children while at the same time being physically attacked, threatened, and controlled by them, all without having any power over the situation and little recognition for what the work entailed. (19)

Another study suggests that siblings of ADHD children are at risk for developing deficiencies in areas of psychiatric, neuropsychological and psychosocial functioning. ADHD children and their siblings (biological) were assessed at a baseline and 1 and 4 years later.  In terms of psychiatric disorders, siblings of ADHD children, after 4 years, showed significantly high rates of ADHD, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and multiple anxiety disorders. The high-risk siblings also scored more poorly on tests of achievement and showed significant evidence of school failure. High-risk siblings also displayed signs of poor social functioning, which is explained by low scores measuring School-Behavior, Spare-Time Problems, Boy-Girl relationships, and Problems with Parents. Overall, high-risk siblings showed more signs of psychosocial and psychiatric impairment compared to the non-ADHD siblings. (20)


ADHD and Peer Rejection:

Parents of children diagnosed with attention deficit / hyperactive disorder (ADHD) are nearly three times more likely to report that their child has difficulty getting along with neighborhood children, more than twice as likely to say their child gets picked on, and half as likely to believe that child has many good friends, than parents of children without ADHD. (21)

In general, children with ADHD often have difficulty with social interactions; they tend to be aggressive, domineering, impulsive, immature, overly talkative, and too intense. Furthermore, children with ADHD have been shown to have more specific deficits in their ability to participate, cooperate, and communicate with peers. Among preschoolers with ADHD, social cooperation skills seem to be the largest deficit area, whereas ADHD children with comorbid learning disabilities have difficulty perceiving nonverbal cues. It has also been suggested that both impulsivity and noncommunitative speech can lead to social problems for children with ADHD. (22)

Boys and Peer Rejection:
Boys with ADHD frequently encounter peer rejection. In a study which compared social interactions amongst two subtypes of ADHD (predominantly inattentive type and ADHD combined type). Boys in both subgroups (ADHD PI and ADHD-CT) were generally not accepted by their peers; both groups received significantly lower social preference scores in the classroom. Boys with ADHD-combined type are more likely to be described by their classmates as someone who initiates arguments and fights. On the other hand, ADHD-Combined type boys are more likely to be described by their peers as being shy and socially withdrawn; also, boys within this subgroup are typically portrayed as being teased by and excluded by their classmates. (23)

One explanation for ADHD boys peer rejections may be the result of the child's inability to appropriately regulate his emotional states. Childrens management of emotional experiences has shown to be a crucial determinant of competent social functioning. It has been demonstrated that childrens negative emotionality and poor emotion regulation are implicated in the risk for social maladaptation. Children who are able to keep cool under emotionally arousing conditions are more likely to devise competent and peer-oriented solutions that enable interpersonal harmony and cooperation with the rules. In contrast, children who become over stimulated or who cope unconstructively with emotion tend to withdraw, disrupt play, or behave aggressively. (24)  In this research study, boys with more-aggressive ADHD were unable to efficiently control their emotional state; in other words, when faced with an obstacle which prevented the achievement of a particular goal, more-aggressive ADHD boys maintained a high level of arousal because they concentrated on the obstacle in their path. This maintenance of high arousal inhibited these boys from devising another approach to solving the problem. In a cooperative classroom setting, this emotional response style might prompt them to disengage (i.e. shut down) or rebel against the demands (leading to non-compliance). (25)

Peer rejection among girls:
Girls with ADHD have also been shown to be prone to peer rejection. Researchers observed ADHD girls and non-ADHD girls during the course of three summer programs. Each summer program lasted 5 weeks and during each session, the camp enlisted 75-80 girls (both ADHD and non-ADHD), ages 6 to 12 years. Observations from the study suggest that girls with ADHD have difficulty developing and maintaining any stable relationships. The study also suggests that the girls inability to make friends is in part due to several factors such as higher levels of conflict, relational aggression within the friendship and relational aggression to others. (26)

In another study, which observed the peer relationships between ADHD and non-ADHD girls, it was also concluded that girls with ADHD demonstrated more aggressive behavior patterns in comparison with non-ADHD girls. ADHD girls experienced more peer rejection. In addition, girls with ADHD exhibited more depressive and anxiety symptoms. (27)