Abstract:

Aim: The aim of this study is to examine the factors associated with mindfulness in treatment-naive adolescents diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Material and Methods: Thirty treatment-naive adolescents with ADHD aged between 13-18 and age-gender matched 30 healthy adolescents were included in the study. Diagnoses and comorbidities were determined through clinical examination based on DSM 5 and the Interview Schedule for “Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children- Present and Lifetime Version (Kiddie-SADS-PL)”, and cases with exclusion criteria were excluded from the study. “Conners ADHD Parent Rating Scale-revised short form- CPRS-RS” was used to evaluate ADHD symptoms, “Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Scale- STAI” to evaluate anxiety symptoms, “Child Depression Inventory- CDI” to evaluate depressive symptoms and “Mindful Attention Awareness Scale- MAAS” to evaluate mindfulness. In statistical evaluation, “independent samples t test” and “Mann- Whitney U” test were used according to conformity to normal distribution. “Spearman correlation analysis” was used for correlation analysis. Results: CPRS, STAI and CDI scale scores were found to be statistically significantly higher (p<0.001) and MAAS total scores were found to be statistically significantly lower (p<0.001) in ADHD group compared to control group. In addition, it was determined that MAAS total scores showed statistically significant, negative and moderate effect size correlations with the scores of CPRS, STAI and CDI scales in ADHD group. Conclusion: Mindfulness levels were found to be lower in ADHD group compared to control group. Additionally, ADHD, anxiety and depression symptoms showed negative correlations with mindfulness levels in adolescents with ADHD. This result suggests that the effects of mindfulness-based approaches are worth investigating with further studies in terms of ADHD symptoms and frequently comorbid anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescents.

Keywords: