Category: ADHD - Adult
Shiffman, S., Stone, A. A., & Hufford, M. R. (2008). Ecological momentary assessment. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 4(1), 1–32. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.3.022806.091415
, Kennedy, T. M., Molina, B. S. G., & Pedersen, S. L. (2022). Change in adolescents' perceived ADHD symptoms across 17 days of ecological momentary assessment. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology (online first).https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2022.2096043
, ,Traci Kennedy, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Margaret Sibley, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
University of Washington School of Medicine
Seattle, Washington
Dara Babinski, ABPP, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Penn State College of Medicine
Hershey, Pennsylvania
Rosanna Breaux, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Assistant Professor
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, Virginia
Traci Kennedy, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Nicholas Marsh, M.S. (he/him/his)
Clinical Psychology PhD Student
University of Maryland- College Park
Silver Spring, Maryland
Laura Knouse, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)
Professor of Psychology
University of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Adolescents and emerging adults with ADHD experience myriad impairments as they navigate the unique challenges of this transitional period (Hechtman et al., 2016; Sibley et al., 2014). Research and theory increasingly stress the crucial need to embed cognitive-behavioral interventions into the day-to-day moments and situations where individuals must execute new skills – that is, “at the point of performance” – to improve the everyday lives of young people with ADHD (Barkley, 2015). Smartphones, which are ubiquitous among young people, offer an appealing, scalable, and accessible vehicle to deliver such interventions (Kennedy et al., 2022). However, minimal research has examined candidate momentary targets for digital interventions (Koch et al., 2021). This symposium showcases an exciting line-up of cutting-edge EMA findings, which expand this literature by uncovering a range of in-the-moment behaviors and cognitions that contribute to impairments for young people with ADHD and can inform mHealth development. This work highlights the feasibility of EMA methods in ADHD populations and leverages EMA’s unique capacity to isolate within-person, momentary, dynamic processes relevant to ADHD.
Babinski’s daily diary findings suggest that for adolescent girls with ADHD – an under-studied, at-risk group – peer interventions may need to be tailored based on time of year (school year vs summer). Breaux and colleagues cleverly use EMA to capture individual-level processes linked to better outcomes of an emotion regulation intervention for teens with ADHD and their parents. An mHealth intervention that boosts these processes in the weeks preceding treatment may potentiate its effectiveness for a given dyad. In the transition to adulthood, Kennedy et al. find that within a given person, higher stress and lower ADHD symptom awareness than usual predict worse momentary ADHD symptoms. Intriguingly, EMA may even directly benefit emerging adults by enhancing day-to-day symptom awareness via frequent self-monitoring. Marsh and colleagues’ within-person findings address a key impairment for college students with ADHD: problematic alcohol use. Students with ADHD readily use protective behavioral strategies, which predict less momentary drinking and problems on the days they are used; thus, one intervention element for this population may include real-time reminders to use these strategies while drinking. Finally, Knouse focuses on avoidant automatic thoughts – cognitions that young adults with ADHD symptoms experience frequently throughout the day – which predict momentary task avoidance. Interventions that help restructure these cognitions in real time may reduce procrastination.
Discussant Margaret Sibley has unparalleled expertise in ADHD impairments and interventions for adolescents and emerging adults. She will draw on her research and clinical perspectives to underscore key themes of these complementary talks, suggest next steps in EMA research on ADHD, and discuss how just-in-time interventions can disrupt these empirically based momentary processes to improve outcomes for young people with ADHD.
Collectively, this symposium will equip researchers and practitioners with clear take-home messages to apply in their work.