ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Glob. Women’s Health
Sec. Women's Mental Health
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgwh.2025.1607464
This article is part of the Research TopicADHD in Women and GirlsView all articles
Age-related cognitive complaints and emotional difficulties associated with symptoms of ADHD: A study of gender differences
Provisionally accepted
- University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Recent research suggests that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a risk factor for suboptimal cognitive and emotional aging. Due to menopause, women may be more vulnerable to these outcomes than men. This study quantifies age-related changes in the association between self-reported ADHD symptoms and cognitive and emotional complaints, comparing men and women. Methods: Participants were 118 community adults aged 19-79 years (78.0% women). Most had a self-reported ADHD diagnosis (71.2%) or clinically significant ADHD symptoms (78.0%). All completed the self-report Connors Adult ADHD Rating Scale, the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire, the Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scales and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Gender-stratified general linear models predicted cognitive and emotional difficulties from ADHD symptoms, testing age as a moderator. Results: ADHD symptoms showed moderate to strong correlations with all cognitive (.39 < r < .68) and emotional outcomes (.21 < r < .64). In men, the association between ADHD symptoms and cognitive (B = -0.009, p = .021, ηp2 = .23) and emotional impulsivity (B = -0.017, p = .012, ηp2 = .28) was less pronounced in older than younger participants. Theses patterns were not observed in women. In older women, the association between ADHD symptoms and self-reported cognitive failures was slightly weaker than in younger women (B = -0.017, p = .030, ηp2 = .05). Although this interaction was not statistically significant in men, the effect was of similar medium-sized magnitude (ηp2 = .08). All associations survived adjustments for depression and anxiety symptoms. Conclusion: Some cognitive and emotional difficulties associated with ADHD symptoms were worse in younger than in older men, but age moderation was not observed in women. The cross-sectional design precludes any conclusions about causality, and it is possible that these results may be explained by greater self-disclosure in women than in men. Results are also interpreted cautiously in the context of relatively small sample size. Altogether, results support the need for a gender-specific lens when considering the lifespan impacts of ADHD symptoms and point to women as a potentially vulnerable segment of the ADHD population regarding cognitive and emotional aging.
Keywords: ADHD, Aging, Cognition, emotion, emotional dysregulation, neurodiversity, gender differences, subjective cognitive impairment
Received: 07 Apr 2025; Accepted: 25 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Callahan, Climie, Al-Khaz'Aly and McKay. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Brandy L Callahan, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.