This study looked at strengths and resilience in 56 children aged 10 to 17 years. Thirty-eight had ADHD and were mostly boys (68.4%). The other 18 did not have ADHD and were mostly girls (61.1%). All had average or above-average intelligence. The findings come from what the children said about themselves.
Children with and without ADHD reported about the same overall resilience. On a resilience questionnaire, the ADHD group scored 63.03 on average (SD 15.35) and the group without ADHD scored 63.22 (SD 13.05). That gap was not meaningful.
One area stood out. Children with ADHD rated their school functioning lower than the children without ADHD (7.92 versus 10.22). This difference was statistically reliable (p = .005) and large (Cohen's d = 0.85).
In both groups, children who reported more strengths also reported more resilience. For the ADHD group these links were moderate to strong (r = .576 to .694, all p < .001). There was one exception: in the group without ADHD, feeling involved with family was not clearly linked to resilience.
The study was small, and the two groups were uneven in size and in gender. It relied only on what the children said about themselves, so some may have overestimated their abilities.
Source: Emma Charabin, Emma A. Climie, Courtney Miller, et al.. “I’m Doing Okay”: Strengths and Resilience of Children With and Without ADHD. Journal of Attention Disorders (2023). doi:10.1177/10870547231167512