ADHD group scored as less emotionally mature has control group. Significant differences were also found between ADHD and control group on emotional, social and total adjustment. ADHD group had poor adjustment in all these areas than control group. However, significant difference was not found between ADHD and control group on educational adjustment. Emotional maturity means controlling your emotions rather than allowing your emotions to control. That does not mean we should hide or repress our emotions, though we can reduce their intensity. Research on the physiological aspects of emotion suggests that people everywhere are born with certain basic or primary emotions. Although psychologists differ somewhat in the emotions they consider to be primary, the list typically includes fear, anger, sadness, joy, surprise, disgust, and contempt [1,2]. A person is emotionally mature when they have reasonable control does not display correctly emotions. Such a person will express his emotions in a socially desirable way and he will be guided more by his intellect than by his emotions.

Emotional maturity in individuals continues to develop until around the age of 35. This process can be slower in people with ADHD, and they may not reach the level of emotional maturity of a 21 year old until they are in their late 20s or early 30s. For children with ADHD, their emotional maturity level may be well below that of their non- ADD counterparts.

Mental maturity is very associated with emotional maturity. The actual situation is necessary to accept and impulse control. Here is a more useful mental maturity. Self-acceptance is an important aspect of maturity, and shall be provided by the acceptance of others. Emotional maturity is a process that people are constantly giving more importance to their emotional health. Anyone who tries to keep his emotional aspect remains strong.

Many criteria have been suggested to evaluate the concept of maturity. According to Bernard [3] criteria for the mature behavior are the following:

i. Inhibition of direct expression of negative emotion

ii. Cultivation of positive emotions

iii. Development of higher tolerances for disagreeing circumstances

iv. Increasing satisfaction from socially approved responses

v. Increasing dependence of actions

vi. Ability to make a choice and not brood about other choices

vii. Freedom from unreasonable fear

viii. Understanding and acting in accordance with limitations

ix. Awareness of the ability and achievement of others

x. Ability to err without disgraced

xi. Ability to carry victory and prestige with grace

xii. Ability to bounce from disappointing experiences

xiii. Ability to delay gratification of impulses

xiv. The enjoyment of daily living

Emotional maturity better in person than communicate with others. He wants to strengthen its mental health is essential for the emotional sensation of the course. He wants to control his emotions depending on the situation, and his constant attempts. An effective with children emotionally mature, their family members and their associates in the school community and culture are capable of creating. But just as attitude maturity and ability to work in full capacity for pleasure.

Adjustment

Humans and other animals to maintain a balance between their needs coordination gap between their needs and the environment is a constant concern. All human behavior is purposeful. These are directed towards the attainment of some goals or satisfaction of some need. An individual is said to be adjusted in environment if there is harmony among his needs are attainable. Moreover, these goals should be socially desirable. So, it is the harmony of the internal with the external.”Life presents a continuous chain of struggle for existence and survivals” says Darwin [4]. Life is a continuous process of overcoming difficulties or of making adjustments. The concept of adjustment was originally borrowed from biology. It was modeled after the biological term adaptation, which refers to efforts by a species adjust to changes in its environment. Just as a field mouse has to adapt to an unusually brutal winter, a person has to adjust to changes in Circumstances such as a new job, a financial setback, or the loss of loved one.

Thus, adjust the mental process. It then takes care of need. There are several efforts to strengthen the adjustment [5].

Adjustment is a process by which living organisms satisfy their needs and circumstances. Adjustment is not a simple term like adaptation or accommodation. It actually a behavioral process by which living organisms maintain an equilibrium among their various needs or between their needs and the obstacles of their environments. That influence the balance between these requirements is maintained. It also needs to deal with stress and personal adjustment is the result of efforts, harmonious relations with its efforts to maintain the environment. A good adjustment is one, which is both realistic and satisfying. In the long term, at least it at the frustration, the stress and anxiety that may reduce the person’s endurance.

The concept of adjustment was originally a biological one and was a cornerstone in Darwin’s theory of evolution [4]. In biology the term usually employed was adaptation. Darwin [4] reported that only those organisms most fitted to adapt to the hazards of the physical world survive. Biologists have continued to be concerned with the problem of physical adaptation to the stress of life [6].

Biological concept of adaptation has been obtained by psychologist and changed its name to Adjustment. The psychologist is more concerned with what might be called “psychological survival” than physical survival. As in the case of the biological concept of adaptation, human behavior is interpreted by adjustments to demands or pressures. These demands are primarily social or interpersonal, and they influence the psychological structure and functioning of the person. It was said that adjustment involves a reaction of the person to demands imposed upon him. The psychological demands made upon the person can be classified into external and internal.

Attention deficit/Hyperactivity disorder

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), often referred to as “hyperactivity” is characterized by difficulties that interfere with effective task-oriented behavior in children-particularly impulsivity, excessive or exaggerated motor activity such as aimless or haphazard running or fidgeting, and difficulties in sustaining attention [7]. Children with ADHD seem to have particular difficulty controlling their activity in situations that call for sitting still, such as in the classroom or at mealtimes. When required to be quiet, they appear unable to stop moving or talking. They are disorganized, erratic, tactless, obstinate, and bossy. Their activities and movements seem haphazard. They quickly wear out their shoes and clothing, smash their toys, and exhaust their families and teachers. They are difficult, however, to distinguish from children without ADHD during free play, when there are fewer restrictions placed on behavior [8].

A. Present for at least six months and are expected to be maladaptive degree of negligence is given six or more manifestations of individual development level, for example, careless mistakes, not listening well, not the easily distracted, suggestions, forgetful in daily activities.

B. Present for at least six months and are expected to be maladaptive degree of hyperactivity-impulsivity than the personification of six or more persons are given the developmental level, for example, in a meeting about the improper running squirming (adult, anxiety), act as if incessant conversation “driven by a motor”.

* A 7-year first above present some

* Presented in two or more settings, e.g. Home and school or work

* Social, academic, or occupational functioning considerable damage

* Part, schizophrenia, or other disorders such as anxiety disorder is not, a mood disorder

Many children with ADHD have inordinate difficulty getting along with peers and establishing friendships, perhaps because their behavior is often aggressive and generally annoying and intrusive to others [8].

About 15 to 30 percent of children with ADHD have a learning disability in math, reading, or spelling [9] and about half of ADHD children are placed in special educational programs because of their difficulty in adjusting to a typical classroom environment [10].

The combined type comprises the majority of ADHD children. These children are more likely to develop conduct problems and oppositional behavior, to be placed in special classes for behaviordisordered children, and to have difficulties interacting with their peers [11].

The prevalence of ADHD has been difficult to establish because of varied definitions of the disorder over time and differences in the populations sampled. ADHD is becoming common [12], estimates vary from 2 to 7 percent in the United States [13], New Zealand [14] and Germany [15] with somewhat higher rates found in India [16] and China [17].

The high prevalence of ADHD in India as compared to western countries and its incidence is on the rise. Moreover, these children are expected to have problems in other areas such as relationship, home, school and social entailment.

The main objectives of this study were as under:

1. To measure the emotional maturity among ADHD and normal children.

2. To measure the adjustment among ADHD and normal children.

3. To compare data of emotional maturity and adjustment between the ADHD group and control group.

To related objectives of this study null-hypothesis were as under.

1. There is no significant difference in emotional maturity among ADHD and normal children.

2. There is no significant difference in adjustment among ADHD and normal children.

Tools

The following tools were used in the present study to collect data.

1. Emotional Maturity scale (EMS) by singh and Bhargava [18].

2. Adjustment Inventory for school students (AISS) by Sinha and Singh [1].

Procedure

Data was collected by visiting the schools and meeting each child individually.

They returned in 15 minutes filling out a questionnaire to provide information about them. The forms of the questionnaire were filled in the presence of the administrator.

Sample

The total sample of the present study comprised of 60 children. ADHD children and normal children were taken from different schools of Rajkot and Ahmadabad city. The children were selected from class VI to VIII. This study is ADHD and non ADHD then study in order to age, gender, such factors have been controlled.

Means of ADHD and Normal group were found out on different dimensions and t-test was applied to find out the difference. The obtained results are being presented in the following tables:

Table 1 reveals significant differences at between ADHD and control group on almost all the dimensions of emotional maturity studied, emotional instability, social maladjustment, personality disintegration, lack of independence and total emotional maturity. On all these dimensions, ADHD group scored higher than the normal children group. However, significant difference was not found between ADHD and normal group on emotional regression.

It can be observed from Table 2 that the ADHD had significant higher scores than the normal control group on all the dimensions of the adjustments scale except for the educational adjustment dimension.

ADHD children were compared with normal children on all these dimensions of emotional maturity and adjustment. This study revealed that all the dimensions of the emotional maturity studied except for one dimension; emotional regression- was significantly higher in the ADHD group than the normal children. These findings indicated that the ADHD children are emotionally immature and more emotionally unstable when compared to normal children.

Table 1: Comparison of findings of the emotional maturity scale between the ADHD
group and the control group.

Table 2: Comparison of findings of the Adjustment Inventory for School Students between the ADHD group and the control group.

In other words, ADHD children have difficulty in controlling their emotions in different situations as well as problem of paying attention.

Emotional regression represents feelings of inferiority, restlessness, hostility, aggressiveness and self-centeredness.

ADHD children of this study had also significant scores of all dimensions of adjustment except for educational adjustment in comparison to the normal children. Our finding of significant difference on the social adjustment between the ADHD group and the normal children, reflected that ADHD group was socially maladjusted than normal group. This finding could be explained upon the proposal that ADHD children are very destructive in nature, acting without thinking and poking others for no apparent reason. ADHD children are highly disorganized and they are impulsive as well as hypersensitive. Perhaps because of all these characteristics they were more socially maladjusted than normal.

ADHD group scored higher than normal on personality disintegration dimension. This means that ADHD group had more personality disintegration than normal group. Personality disintegration means problems such as phobias formation, rationalization, pessimism, immorality etc. All these problems were experienced more by ADHD group than normal group in the present investigation.

Moreover, ADHD children were significantly lacking independence than the normal children of this study. Lack of independence means that such a person shows parasitic dependence on other, egoistic and lacks objective interest. This means that ADHD group lack independence and were dependent on others. It is expected that when person has some problems they may become dependent on others and lacks independence. That’s why ADHD group lacks independence than normal.

It was also found in the present investigation that there was a significant difference between ADHD and normal group on total maturity. It means ADHD group were more immature emotionally than normal. Since children with ADHD have frequent severe problem that interfere with their ability to live normal lives. Therefore, they were more emotionally immature than normal.

This finding is in agreement with the study done by Barkely et al. [10] They conducted study on 84 adolescents (aged 12-17 years) with ADHD and 77 adolescents control and found greater impairment in social competence, behavior and emotional adjustment of ADHD children. Thus ADHD children had poorer emotional adjustment than normal.

In this study, Social adjustment was found to be significantly higher in the ADHD group than the normal children reflecting that ADHD children had poorer social adjustment than the normal children. This means that ADHD group was more submissive and retiring than control group.

Meanwhile, the ADHD children have lower score of educational adjustment in comparison to the normal children but this finding did not show any significant difference between the two groups.

This finding is significant, because on the basis of common sense we would expect ADHD group have poor school adjustment to normal. But it was not found in this investigation. Perhaps the ADHD group was able to overcome the problems related to education and is well suited to school. Consequently, they do not differ from the normal adaptation of education.

The significant overall poorer adjustment of the ADHD children of this study in comparison to the normal children could be supported by the finding of the study done by Young [19]. He detected those long-terms adjustment difficulties of ADHD in terms of risk for continuation of core symptoms antisocial and criminal behavior, substance abuse, personality disorder and emotional problem educational underachievement, occupational status and interpersonal relationships. Evidence research finding was given by Singh et al. [20], Joseph and Pullappally [21].

It was concluded from this study that ADHD children were less emotional mature as well as had less adjustment than the normal children. These finding should be considered while enrolling the ADHD in special psychological training programs to help them achieve better emotional maturity and higher adjustment abilities. Future studies implementing special training programs aiming at enhancing the emotional maturity ant the adjustment skills of ADHD are recommended to be done. Overall, it can be said that ADHD children were found to be more emotionally immature and poorly adjusted on almost all the dimensions studied.