Trajectories of college students with and without Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: the impact of service utilization and race/ethnicity on study skills

This paper investigated the longitudinal study skills trajectories of college students with and without ADHD. Data were drawn from a large federally funded multi-site study, known as the Trajectories Related to ADHD in College (TRAC) project. A total of 456 first year college students started the project and were assessed annually across four years in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Data from years 1-3 were available for the current study, which used ADHD group status, service utilization, and race/ethnicity to predict differences in study skills at baseline and change-over-time. Latent growth curve modeling was used to map out the trajectories of study skills, as measured by comprehension monitoring strategies (CMS), which is comprised of three subscales of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI). It was expected that students with ADHD would have worse CMS scores than non-ADHD comparison students, that service use would predict CMS scores, and that there would be differences in both CMS scores and service utilization as a function of dichotomized race/ethnicity. Results revealed that students with ADHD had worse educational skills at baseline and change-over-time. ADHD group status moderated the relationship between service utilization and CMS, such that increases in service utilization predicted increased trajectories of CMS scores for students with ADHD only. No differences in service utilization or CMS scores at baseline or change-over-time were observed as a function of race/ethnicity. Implications for college services and ADHD treatment programs were discussed