[11] Signs of adjustment disorder include sadness, hopelessness, lack of enjoyment, crying spells, nervousness, anxiety, desperation, feeling overwhelmed and thoughts of suicide, performing poorly in school or work, among others.

Bronish and Hecht (1989) found that 70% of a series of patients with adjustment disorder attempted suicide immediately before their index admission and they remitted faster than a comparison group with major depression.

[5] Asnis et al. (1993) found that adjustment disorder patients report persistent ideation or suicide attempts less frequently than those diagnosed with major depression.

In addition, it was found that 15 of these 22 patients chose suicide methods that involved high chances of being saved.

Age can be a factor due to young children having fewer coping resources and because they are less likely to realize the consequences of a potential stressor.

[20] Adjustment disorders can come from a wide range of stressors that can be traumatic or relatively minor, like the loss of a girlfriend/boyfriend, a poor report card, or moving to a new neighborhood.

[21] There are certain stressors that are more common in different age groups:[22] Adulthood: Adolescence and childhood: In a study conducted from 1990 to 1994 on 89 psychiatric outpatient adolescents, 25% had attempted suicide in which 37.5% had misused alcohol, 87.5% displayed aggressive behaviour, 12.5% had learning difficulties, and 87.5% had anxiety symptoms.

These factors include but are not limited to age, severity of symptoms, type of adjustment disorder, and personal preference.

[18][19] Different ways to help with the disorder include: In addition to professional help, parents and caregivers can help their children with their difficulty adjusting by: It has been criticized for its lack of specificity of symptoms, behavioral parameters, and close links with environmental factors has been criticized from a minority of the professional community as well as those in semi-related professions outside the healthcare field.

[24] An editorial in the British Journal of Psychiatry described adjustment disorder as being so "vague and all-encompassing… as to be useless,"[25][26] but it has been retained in the DSM-5 because of the belief that it serves a useful clinical purpose for clinicians seeking a temporary, mild, non-stigmatizing label, particularly for patients who need a diagnosis for insurance coverage of therapy.

The study used self-report surveys to measure the prevalence and severity of symptoms of adjustment disorder compared to PTSD, depression, and anxiety.