Study: ADHD Symptom Severity Linked to School Behavior Problems

additudemag.com:

December 30, 2022Adults with severe ADHD symptoms were more likely to be expelled and receive reprimands from teachers as school children compared to adults with less severe or no ADHD symptoms, according to a partial study published this month in the Journal of Attention Disorders.1Researchers compared the school experiences and intensity of ADHD symptoms in 1,518 adults from the Czech Republic aged 18 to 65.

Participants answered questions from the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) and were grouped according to symptom manifestation, or “ADHD type”: low, medium, and high.Findings revealed that those with higher ADHD symptoms were “significantly more likely to be expelled, receive notes for bad behavior, disturbing or forgetting, as well as receive reprimands from teachers” as children.“The results suggest that children with higher ADHD symptomatology are more likely to be forgetful, restless, and misbehave — which then gets written down by their teachers,” researchers said. “The school difficulties were found regardless of age, and students with increased ADHD symptomatology struggled in elementary and lower high school.”Behavior grades were not significantly different between groups.“School behavioral problems can have long-term negative consequences on educational and working careers,” researchers said. “Even in places where behavior is not graded, such as in the U.S.