Symptoms of ADHD and Other Common Mental Disorders Influence Academic Success in South African Undergraduates

Abstract

Objective: ADHD symptoms are highly prevalent among university students. These symptoms, particularly the inattentive cluster, predispose students to poorer academic performance and worse academic adjustment. Moreover, ADHD symptoms are often comorbid with other common mental disorders; this comorbidity also leads to poor outcomes. South African students often have fewer resources to successfully transition to university. Hence, our longitudinal study used data from a sample of South African first-year undergraduate students to investigate (a) associations between ADHD symptoms and academic performance/adjustment, (b) separate influences of the inattentive and hyperactivity-impulsivity clusters on academic performance/adjustment, and (c) the influence of the combination of ADHD and psychiatric comorbidities on academic performance/adjustment.

Method: We collected data three times through the first semester of 2023. Predictors within our regression models included sociodemographic variables, psychological variables (self-reported symptoms of ADHD, depression, anxiety, and risky alcohol use), and high school academic performance. Outcomes were first-semester GPA and self-reported academic adjustment (magnitude of change across the semester and overall adjustment at the end of the semester).

Results: Analyses showed that, unlike academic performance (N = 506), magnitude of change in academic adjustment (N = 180) was significantly predicted by ADHD symptoms and the combination of ADHD (p = .02), depression (p < .001), and anxiety symptoms (p = .01). Inattentive ADHD symptoms predicted both academic performance and magnitude of change in academic adjustment.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the presence of ADHD symptoms (both with and without other common mental disorders) is associated with a smaller magnitude of academic adjustment, and that the presence of inattentive symptoms of ADHD is associated with both poorer academic performance and smaller magnitude of academic adjustment. These findings are significant in informing future interventions targeting the academic outcomes of first-year university students.

Keywords: ADHD; academic success; alcohol use; anxiety; common mental disorders; comorbidity; depression; university students.

Figure 1.

Participant recruitment flow and attrition across the data collection time points. Note. Participants excluded because of missing academic data were those for whom at least one of their National Benchmark Test scores, Grade 12 scores, and first-semester grades were unavailable or inaccessible. ASRS = Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale; BDI-II = Beck Depression Inventory-II.

Figure 2.

Self-reported academic adjustment between time point 3 and time point 1 (N = 180). Note. Scores were calculated by taking the difference in Academic Adjustment Scale (AAS) scores between Time Point 3 and Time Point 1 (M ± SD = 0 ± 5.53). The number for each data series represents the raw frequency of participants in that category. AAS = Academic Adjustment Scale.