Differences Between First-Year Undergraduates With and Without ADHD
By Will Canu
It has been known for a long time that ADHD creates problems for kids in school. This is reflected in lower grades, higher dropout rates, and less common progression to higher education. However, there is a relatively small group of people with ADHD, perhaps 25%, that go to college in their teens or early twenties. In our society, completing college is important. College degrees are associated with higher wages, which, in turn, are a potential means to a more comfortable life. Further, socioeconomic prestige is on the line, with more jobs that require college education held in high esteem in our culture than those needing a high school diploma or less. Accordingly, it is important to pay attention to this “high-achieving” group of people with ADHD (i.e., those who make it to college) because, optimally, they would have as fair a shake as others do to “make it.”
Unfortunately, research consistently indicates this is not the case. Success rates in college, are maybe half for those with ADHD when compared to those without, and those that do complete a degree tend to take longer and have lower grades, which themselves are not desirable outcomes. So the big question is: Why? Is it just because of ADHD-related inattention, or impulsivity, that lasts into adulthood? What else could be playing a role? This study that we conducted gets at one potential factor: Basically, college-survival skills, what in other terms is called college readiness. And what we found, in a nutshell, is that it looks like these “high achieving” people with ADHD actually may be underprepared for the adjustment to college studies and life.
College readiness is a big concept, and different people define this in different ways. We chose to employ the model used by Theresa Maitland and Patricia Quinn in Ready for Takeoff: Preparing your Teen with ADHD or LD for College. Basically, the idea is that readiness for college takes three sets of abilities: Self-determination (independence, self-regulation, belief in oneself), daily living skills (getting enough sleep, keeping track of things, exercising regularly), and, not surprisingly, academic skills (critical thinking, study skills, note taking). Each of these contributes to the likelihood that a college student succeeds in school in different ways. Self-determined people are realistic goal setters who are good at advocating for themselves. People with good daily living skills keep an effective balance in their life, and tend to keep things from falling through the cracks. The academic skills are particularly important in classes, of course, but particularly in college where learning is mainly on your own time and the expectations are higher.
The main, take-home finding in our sample of almost 3,000 first-year college students across four universities in the U.S. was that those with ADHD endorsed less robust skills in all of these areas. This was apparent even when we took into account variables such as their histories of taking ADHD medication or engaging in therapy and their performance (grade point average) in high school. The biggest difference was in daily living skills, followed by academic skills, and then self-determination. It is also interesting to note that these patterns were most telling for women; in other words, the differences between women with and without ADHD in these self-reported skills were found to be the most obvious.
Article Details
College Readiness: Differences Between First-Year Undergraduates With and Without ADHD
Will H. Canu, PhD, Anne E. Stevens, PhD, Loren Ranson, MA, Elizabeth K. Lefler, PhD, Patrick LaCount, PhD, Judah W. Serrano, MSEd, MS, Erik Willcutt, PhD, and Cynthia M. Hartung, PhD
First Published November 26, 2020
DOI: 10.1177/0022219420972693
Journal of Learning Disabilities
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