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Young Adult Educational and Vocational Outcomes of Children Diagnosed with ADHD

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Abstract

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 variability of these outcomes. 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. 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 academic achievement significantly predicted enrollment in post-high school education and academic and disciplinary problems mediated the relationship between childhood ADHD and post-high school education. Interestingly, ADHD diagnosis and disciplinary problems negatively predicted occupational status while enrollment in post-high school education was a positive predictor. Job loss was positively predicted by a higher rate of academic problems and diagnosis of ADHD. 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 school education and gaining and maintaining stable employment.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by NIAAA11873 and NIDA12414. Additional support was provided by AA00202, AA08746, AA12342, AA0626 from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA05605, F31 DA017546, DA-8-5553), the National Institute on Mental Health (MH12010, MH4815, MH47390, MH45576, MH50467, MH53554, MH069614), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (ES0515-08), and Institute of Education Sciences (IESLO3000665A, IESR324B060045)

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Children and Families, Florida International University, AHC 1, Room 140, 11200 SW 8th Street, Miami, FL, 33199, USA

    Aparajita B. Kuriyan, William E. Pelham Jr., Daniel A. Waschbusch, Elizabeth M. Gnagy, Margaret H. Sibley, Dara E. Babinski & Kristine M. Kent

  2. State University of New York at Buffalo, 106 Diefendorf Hall, 3435 Main Street, Buffalo, NY, 14214, USA

    Margaret H. Sibley, Dara E. Babinski, Jihnhee Yu & Kristine M. Kent

  3. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 3811 O’Hara St., Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Brooke S. G. Molina, Christine Walther & JeeWon Cheong

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  1. Aparajita B. Kuriyan
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Correspondence to Aparajita B. Kuriyan.

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Kuriyan, A.B., Pelham, W.E., Molina, B.S.G. et al. Young Adult Educational and Vocational Outcomes of Children Diagnosed with ADHD. J Abnorm Child Psychol 41, 27–41 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-012-9658-z

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