Financial Fraud Victimization Among Young Adults in Taiwan: Roles of Executive Functioning, Personality Traits, and the Self-Reported Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Diagnosis.

BACKGROUND: Financial fraud victimization can lead to financial devastation and is associated with mental health problems. The current study examined differences in executive function, personality traits, and the rate of a self-reported attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis across varying experiences of financial fraud victimization among young adults in Taiwan. METHODS: A total of 1764 young adults participated in this study. The participants reported their experiences with 11 types of financial fraud over the past 5 years. The participants were categorized into the following three groups on the basis of their exposure to financial fraud and whether they lost money: no exposure to fraud, exposure without monetary loss, and exposure with monetary loss. The executive function, personality traits, and the rate of a self-reported ADHD diagnosis were compared among the three groups using multivariate analysis of covariance. RESULTS: Of the participants, 47.6% had been scammed out of money, 26.9% had experienced fraud without monetary loss, and 25.5% had had no exposure to financial fraud. The participants who had been scammed were more likely to self-report having an ADHD diagnosis and reported worse working memory and inhibition than did the participants in the other groups (all p < 0.001). The participants exposed to fraud without monetary loss reported worse working memory than did those with no exposure (p < 0.001). The participants who had no exposure to fraud scored higher in terms of extraversion (p = 0.010), agreeableness (p < 0.001), conscientiousness (p < 0.001), and openness (p = 0.023) than did those who had been scammed, whereas the participants who had been scammed scored higher in terms of neuroticism than did those with no exposure (p = 0.009). CONCLUSION: Differences in executive functioning, personality traits, and the rate of a self-reported ADHD diagnosis were observed among the young adults with varying experiences of financial fraud victimization.