Stigma associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the young Portuguese population

• Autor(a) principal: Guimarães, Ana Cláudia Carvalho da Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/19858
• topic: Attention Deficit Hhyperactivity Disordes (ADHD); Stigma; Young people; Mental health

ADHD is a common neurodevelopmental disorder associated with significant functional impairements. Young people with ADHD often suffer from stigma, which can exacerbate their symptoms, discourage them from seeking help, and increase functional deficits. Understanding the factos that lead to stigma is necessary to promote a change in public awareness and to combat stigma and its consequences. Describe the prevalence of ADHD stigma in the young Portuguese population aged 11-17 years and understand the factos that lead young people to stigmatise people with ADHD. The sample was recruited through a non-probabilistic method, due to the easy access to individuals aged between 11 and 17 years, in several schools and youth organisations from Porto Metropolitan Area. In order to select participants for the interviews, a non-probabilistic purposive maximum variation method was used. The ADHD stigma questionnaire (ASQ) allowed assessing the participants’ levels of stigma, and a semi-structured interview was utilised to generate qualitative data. The quantitative sample was made upo f 102 individuals. According to the variables under study, no statistically significant diferences were found in the ASQ score, although some trends were observed. The interviews with 17 individuals allowed the identification of some promoters of stigma: ADHD symptoms, psychological and pharmacological treatment, “being diferente”, and public knowledge. Several factos that lead young people to stigmatise were found, although further studies are needed. The presente study is a positive contribution to the understanding of stigma against ASHD and, consequently, to the development of prevention and intervention programes on ADHD stigma.