ADHD in Children
Visual Abstract
Young Adult Educational and Vocational Outcomes of Children Diagnosed with ADHD
ADHD: Education and employment as young adults.
Aparajita B Kuriyan, William E Pelham Jr, Brooke S G Molina, Daniel A Waschbusch, Elizabeth M Gnagy, Margaret H Sibley, Dara E Babinski, Christine Walther, Jeewon Cheong, Jihnhee Yu, Kristine M Kent
Summarized by:
April 23, 2023
study source
J Abnorm Child Psychol.
Jan 2013
🔎
What they studied
Researchers studied the higher education and workforce outcomes for young adults who had ADHD as children.
🎓
What they found
Young adults who had ADHD as children had more challenges at work and school. They were less likely to be enrolled in college and were more likely to have been fired from a job.
🙋♂️
What this means
The results also showed that much of the difference could be attributed to disciplinary issues and academic performance. Those with ADHD who avoid these issues are likelier to achieve just as much as their peers.
Young Adult Educational and Vocational Outcomes of Children Diagnosed with ADHD
Background
It’s relatively well-known that children with ADHD can have more difficulties at school.
However, less is known about the long-term effects of ADHD in higher education and the workforce.
This study wanted to gather hard data on college and employment outcomes for those who had ADHD as children.
Study Quote
Decreased success at work and educational attainment by adulthood are of concern for children with ADHD given their widely documented academic difficulties; however there are few studies that have examined this empirically and even fewer that have studied predictors and individual variab...
Show More
Methods
The researchers conducted the study on two groups of young adults, one that had ADHD as children and the other that did not.
This allowed them to compare the outcomes of those with ADHD to a baseline of those who did not have ADHD.
Study Quote
The current study compares young adults with and without a childhood diagnosis of ADHD on educational and occupational outcomes and the predictors of these outcomes. Participants were from the Pittsburgh ADHD Longitudinal Study (PALS), a prospective study with yearly data collection.
Results
Across the board, those who had ADHD as children struggled more in higher education and at work.
At the time of the study, less than a third of those who had ADHD as children were enrolled in a four-year college.
Meanwhile, over 3/4 of those without ADHD were enrolled or had graduated.
Children who had ADHD were less likely to have completed a four year degree
They also had more difficulties in the workforce.
Given differences in education and workforce participation for young adults, researchers calculated adjusted odds of employment.
Researchers found that those with ADHD were far more likely to have ever quit a job and even more likely to have been fired from a job than those without ADHD.
Children who had ADHD had more difficulties, maintaining employment. They were more likely to have quit a job and to have been fired from a job.
These data show that some of this difference could be attributed to the higher rates of academic and disciplinary issues among those with ADHD.
Much of the difference in workforce success could be attributed to the differences in higher education.
Study Quote
Significant group differences were found for nearly all variables such that educational and occupational attainment was lower for adults with compared to adults without histories of childhood ADHD. Despite the mean difference, educational functioning was wide-ranging. High school academi...
Show More
Conclusions
These results provide more evidence of the challenges children with ADHD face as they grow into young adults.
Fortunately, many of these challenges can be mitigated. Many very successful adults had ADHD in children.
“
Although the majority of the participants with childhood ADHD attained less education compared to the participants without ADHD, a range of academic functioning in young adulthood was observed. For example, 30% of the ADHD group pursued higher education at a traditional four-year degree granting institution.
This study found that children with ADHD who avoided disciplinary issues had much better outcomes.
Children with and without ADHD performed much better in the workforce with higher education.
In fact, once you control for academic performance, higher education, and disciplinary records, ADHD is no longer a significant impediment to achievement.
“
Academic problems...and achievement test scores at age 17 significantly predicted post-high school education...Interestingly, these predictors along with parental education accounted for all of the group differences explained by childhood ADHD diagnosis, as diagnosis was not a significant predictor when the other variables were taken into account.
Study Quote
This study supports the need for interventions that target the child and adolescent predictors of later educational and occupational outcomes in addition to continuing treatment of ADHD in young adulthood targeting developmentally appropriate milestones, such as completing post-high scho...
Show More