Date of Completion
2024
Document Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Psychological Science
Thesis Type
Honors College, College of Arts and Science Honors
First Advisor
Betsy Hoza
Second Advisor
Erin Shoulberg
Keywords
ADHD, preschool, school readiness, inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity
Abstract
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms are associated with impairment in academic outcomes starting as early as elementary school. There is some evidence of ADHD symptoms being negatively related to school readiness in preschoolers, though the literature is not extensive regarding all domains of school readiness and often does not differentiate between ADHD symptom dimensions. This study examined how the two symptom dimensions of ADHD, inattention (IA) and hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI), were uniquely related to multiple domains of school readiness (i.e., social-emotional, physical, language, cognitive, literacy, mathematics). Data from reports of 240 preschoolers’ ADHD symptoms and school readiness were used in bivariate correlations and regression analyses to examine the associations between ADHD symptom levels and school readiness. Bivariate correlational analyses indicated that both symptom dimensions were negatively and significantly related to all school readiness domains. The regression analyses showed that IA symptoms were negatively and significantly related to all domains. Contrary to hypotheses, HI symptoms were positively related to cognitive, physical, language, and mathematics development. This work provides important information about the unique associations between the two ADHD symptom dimensions and school readiness outcomes. However, the strong correlation between IA and HI symptom levels makes it difficult to completely differentiate the two dimensions.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Vecsey, Greta, "The Unique Associations Between ADHD Symptoms and Children’s School Readiness in a Preschool Sample" (2024). UVM Patrick Leahy Honors College Senior Theses. 670.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/670