Academic Success of College Students with ADHD: The First Year of College

Abstract

We plan to conduct a mediation analysis to study the relationship between students' precollege characteristics and experiences, the college experience, and academic success of students with ADHD. We will employ a college impact model to guide our analysis of multi-institutional, longitudinal data from students as incoming freshman and then again after finishing their first year. Through our analysis, we will identify aspects of the college experience of students with ADHD related to academic success. These findings will guide our future qualitative study exploring these aspects in more depth. From these studies, our findings on classroom experiences may enable instructors to consider their classroom environment and instruction and how it is related to the academic success of students with ADHD. Similarly, we may identify elements of academic support and development associated with the academic success of students with ADHD, thereby providing administrators and other staff members research-based evidence for tailoring, adding, or modifying academic support and development programs. Ultimately, we hope our research contributes to more diverse graduating cohorts, including more students with ADHD, pursuing SEM careers.