Citation

Fuller-Thomson E, Lewis DA. Child Abuse Negl. 2015; 47: 94-101.

Affiliation

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, 246 Bloor St. W., Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 1A1.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.03.005

PMID

25890666

Abstract

This study examined whether retrospectively reported childhood physical abuse, childhood sexual abuse and/or exposure to parental domestic violence were associated with self-report of a health-professional diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) among adults. We analyzed nationally representative data from the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey-Mental Health using gender-specific bivariate and logistic regression analyses (n=10,496 men; n=12,877 women). For both men and women, childhood physical abuse was associated with significantly higher odds of reporting ADHD (men odds ratio [OR]=1.66, p<.001; women OR=1.95, p<.001). For both genders, childhood sexual abuse was also significantly related to higher odds of ADHD (men OR=2.57, p<.001; women OR=2.55, p<.001); however, exposure to parental domestic violence was only associated with elevated odds of ADHD among women (men OR=0.89, p=.60; women OR=1.54, p=.03). The results demonstrate a link between childhood physical and sexual abuse and ADHD for both men and women. Future prospective studies are required to further understand this interesting relationship.

Language: en