Dorien Bangma

FDM AND CURRENT SYMPTOMS OF ADHD | 201 Discussion The primary goal of the present study was to further investigate the influence of current symptoms of ADHD on two types of financial performance, i.e., impulsive buying and financial decision styles which are of influence on the capability to make financial decisions (Appelbaum et al., 2016). Furthermore, it was investigated to what extent personality and symptoms of depression are of influence on the association between impulsive buying, financial decision styles and symptoms of ADHD. Based on a recent study (Bangma et al., 2019), symptoms of ADHD were expected to be related to impulsive buying, in particular to the cognitive component of impulsive buying. Furthermore, the use of an avoidant or a spontaneous decision style in situations requiring financial decisions, which are both negatively related to decision- making (Bavol’ár & Orosová, 2015), were expected to be related to symptoms of ADHD. In the present study, the tendency to buy on impulse and/or components of impulsive buying were indeed stronger in individuals experiencing symptoms of ADHD in adulthood (i.e., the ADHD group and Adult-only ADHD group) compared to individuals without symptoms of ADHD. Furthermore, individuals who met the self-reported symptom criteria for ADHD (i.e., the ADHD group) showed higher scores on the cognitive component of impulsive buying compared to individuals without symptoms of ADHD and individuals with current subthreshold symptoms of ADHD. A similar result was found for individuals in the Adult-only ADHD group compared to individuals without symptoms of ADHD (i.e., the No ADHD group). Previous research reported a significant relation between current symptoms of ADHD and compulsive buying, a pathological form of impulsive buying (Black et al., 2012; Brook et al., 2015), particularly with ADHD symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity (Black et al., 2012). In the regression analyses, however, no association between symptoms of ADHD and impulsive buying was found. In contrast, the results of the present study suggest that personality traits seem to play a role when buying on impulse. The cognitive, affective and combined component (i.e., total score) of impulsive buying were found to be positively related to traits of neuroticism and extraversion and negatively related to traits of conscientiousness and agreeableness, with the exception of the affective component which was not related to conscientiousness and agreeableness. Comparable findings were found in previous research on impulsive buying and personality within a non-clinical adult sample (Bratko et al., 2013; Verplanken & Herabadi, 2001). Although the strength of relations found was weak, in previous and present research the strongest associations with impulse buying were most consistently found for extraversion and neuroticism: Individuals who are strongly focused on and engaged in the external environment (i.e., high on extraversion) and/or individuals who experience a strong tendency of emotional instability or negative emotions (i.e., high on neuroticism) tend to have a higher tendency to buy on impulse compared to individuals with low levels of these personality traits. In accordance with previous literature (Bangma et al., 2019; Verplanken & Herabadi, 2001), being female and a younger age were also associated with a stronger tendency to buy on impulse. Although the ADHD groups did not statistically differ with regard to age and sex, individuals in the ADHD group seem to be slightly younger compared to the other groups when focusing on the age range of these groups. This observation needs to be taken into account when