Storylines featuring Adam have included: a bromance with Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller), suffering a breakdown and committing arson following the death of his father, John Barton (James Thornton); discovering his uncle, James Barton (Bill Ward), is actually his biological father; his on-off marriage to Victoria Sugden (Isabel Hodgins); believing he fathered Johnny Woodfield after a one-night stand with Vanessa Woodfield (Michelle Hardwick); his fertility issues which prevent him having a child with Victoria; and admitting to killing Emma Barton (Gillian Kearney) to protect his mother Moira (Natalie J. Robb), who had actually killed her.
Towards the end of 2009, Holly Barton (Sophie Powles) starts flirting with Aaron Livesy (Danny Miller) and it looks like a relationship is brewing.
Aaron watches jealously as Adam gets closer to Scarlett Nicholls (Kelsey-Beth Crossley) and starts dating her.
When Carl King's (Tom Lister) children, Thomas (Jack Ferguson) and Anya (Ceryen Dean), are hospitalized, Jai (Chris Bisson) and Nikhil Sharma (Rik Makarem) are blamed but tests clear them and Adam remembers moving some toxic barrels a few months back and is shocked to discover he's responsible.
They are fined by Nathan Wylde (Lyndon Ogbourne) for the cleaning up, so John stops Adam's wages until the bill is paid.
When released, Aaron decides he can no longer risk people finding out he's gay and attempts suicide in the garage.
When Adam and Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley) discover him, they save him but Aaron reveals that he wishes he had died.
This decline in their relationship culminates in Adam kissing Mia Macey (Sapphire Elia) on New Year's Eve.
Adam is understandably distraught when he learns of his mother's affair with Cain, but he is delighted when John and Moira patch things up and they get back together.
Missing court, Adam helps Aaron escape to France with Ed Roberts (Lloyd Everitt).
Victoria accepts, but later admits that she is not ready for marriage and lets Adam down, leading to the pair breaking up.
Adam gets grief from Rhona Goskirk and he gets drunk, rather than attend the wedding of Pete Barton and Debbie Dingle.
Adam falls asleep in a car at the scrapyard, but is unaware that a fire had been started, which then caused some gas canisters to explode and collide with a helicopter, which then crashed through the roof of the Village Hall.
When Vanessa breaks the news to Adam, he is devastated and attacks Kirin's father after he learns that it was him that switched the DNA results.
A few weeks later, Adam celebrates with the rest of the family when Aaron gets his deed poll letter officially declaring him as a Dingle.
In September 2016, Adam is heartbroken by the sudden loss of his sister Holly, who died from a heroin overdose.
On the day of the funeral, Adam is angry and upset that his sister Hannah is unable to attend and comforts Moira as they say their final goodbyes to Holly.
On the day of James' funeral, Adam tries to put a brave face on everything, insisting to Moira that he has already buried his dad.
However, when Ashley interrupts the service Adam gets upset and asks Laurel to take her husband out, saying he's ruining his dad's funeral.
The test comes back negative, but Vic confides in Finn that she wants a baby and she's not sure how Adam feels.
Diane Sugden (Elizabeth Estensen) pays for a private fertility clinic, where it is revealed that Adam has zero sperm count.
In May 2009, it was announced that Emmerdale's new series producer, Gavin Blyth, would introduce The Barton's, a new farming family, as part of an ongoing overhaul of the show.
He added that he had enjoyed working at Emmerdale and thanked the team for providing him with the role of Adam and for creating "some great storylines" for the character.