skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Pay Attention to Inattention: Exploring ADHD Symptoms in a Sample of Underachieving Gifted Students
Much has been written about the relationship of giftedness and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as the relationship between ADHD and underachievement. The present study examined whether students who were identified as gifted underachievers were more likely to manifest symptoms of ADHD, as measured by the ADHD-IV. Over half of the gifted underachievers met the screening criteria for ADHD based on teacher reports, and almost 30% of the gifted underachievers met the screening criteria for ADHD based on parent reports. Most of these students had elevated scores on the inattention scale. The prevalence of inattention was over 2 times as high as the prevalence in the norming sample using the teacher rating scales and over 5 times as high as the prevalence in the norming sample using the parent rating scales. Although parents and teachers rated students similarly on the hyperactivity scale, teachers rated students as more inattentive than parents did. However, elevated parent ratings of inattention negatively predicted students’ self-regulation, goal valuation, and self-efficacy. Self-regulation was most strongly related to inattention. We cannot know whether the gifted underachievers with high inattention scores have undiagnosed ADHD. However, our results suggest that a substantial percentage of gifted underachievers exhibit attentional problems at home, and that these attentional problems are severe enough to merit further examination.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1735225
PAR ID:
10178598
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Gifted Child Quarterly
Volume:
64
Issue:
2
ISSN:
0016-9862
Page Range / eLocation ID:
100 to 116
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most prevalent childhood psychiatric condition that needs an assessment of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness symptoms. Particularly in young children, hyperactivity-impulsivity stands out as a primary concern. However, those behaviors may or may not be evidenced when a child is in a small room, one-on-one with a single adult. Therefore, Ambient intelligence technology that supports data collection in a natural setting paired with expert human decision-making can potentially improve the quality of assessments. In this paper, we conduct a literature review and analysis to align ADHD assessment criteria with potential sensor technologies to collect behavior data, followed by design sessions proposing personas and scenarios to envision potential solutions. 
    more » « less
  2. Although inattention is a key symptom subdomain of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the mechanisms underlying this subdomain and related symptoms remain unclear. There is a need for more granular approaches that allow for greater specificity in linking disruptions in specific domains of cognitive performance (e.g., executive function and reward processing) with behavioral manifestations of ADHD. Such approaches may inform the development of more targeted therapeutic interventions. Here, we describe the results of a pilot study of elementary-aged children (ages 6–12years) with ADHD ( n =50) and typically developing children ( n =48) utilizing a cognitive science task designed to target two dissociable mechanisms of attentional selection: a goal-driven mechanism (i.e., reward/value-driven) and a salience-driven mechanism. Participants were asked to optimally extract and combine information about stimulus salience and value to maximize rewards. While results of this pilot study are ambiguous due to the small sample size and limited number of task trials, data suggest that neither participants with ADHD nor typically developing participants performed optimally to maximize rewards, though typically developing participants were somewhat more successful at the task (i.e., more likely to report high-value targets) regardless of task condition. Further, the manuscript examines several follow-up questions regarding group differences in task response times and group differences in task performance as related to sustained attention across the duration of the task. Finally, the manuscript examines follow-up questions related to heterogeneity in the ADHD group (i.e., age, DSM 5 presentation, and comorbid diagnosis) in predicting task performance. 
    more » « less
  3. Characteristics of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and executive functioning difficulties have been found to correspond with poorer academic outcomes on the one hand and enhanced divergent thinking on the other hand. The current study was conducted to better understand the relationship between ADHD characteristics, executive functioning difficulties, divergent thinking, and academic outcomes by conceptually replicating and expanding on a previous study. Undergraduate engineering students ( N = 199) at a public university in the northeastern United States completed self-report measures of ADHD characteristics and daily executive functioning, as well as divergent thinking (figural and verbal) and intelligence quotient (IQ) tests. The results of a series of multiple regression models showed that (1) executive functioning difficulties negatively, and non-verbal IQ and figural divergent thinking positively, predicted engineering grade point average (GPA; obtained from the university registrar’s office), (2) GPA and verbal IQ positively predicted figural divergent thinking scores, and (3) verbal IQ positively predicted verbal divergent thinking scores. A series of multiple regression models testing the assertion that controlling for IQ would strengthen the relationship between divergent thinking and ADHD characteristics or executive functioning were not supported but did show associations between select components of characteristics and divergent thinking. Taken together, these results support previous conclusions that students with ADHD characteristics and executive functioning difficulties may struggle academically yet exhibit select enhanced divergent thinking abilities. 
    more » « less
  4. While a large body of literature suggests that students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) possess significant creative and risk-taking potential, they remain highly underrepresented in engineering programs. High school students with ADHD have significantly lower GP As and are over eight times more likely to drop out than their peers without ADHD, which makes them significantly less likely to enter college engineering programs. To support the development of a more diverse engineering pipeline, this work summarizes outreach efforts to high school and middle school students with ADHD with the intention of boosting self-esteem and increasing interest in engineering. 
    more » « less
  5. While a large body of literature suggests that students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) possess significant creative and risk-taking potential, they remain highly underrepresented in engineering programs. High school students with ADHD have significantly lower GPAs and are over eight times more likely to drop out than their peers without ADHD, which makes them significantly less likely to enter college engineering programs. To support the development of a more diverse engineering pipeline, this work summarizes outreach efforts to high school and middle school students with ADHD with the intention of boosting self-esteem and increasing interest in engineering. 
    more » « less