title: Health, Dietary Habits, and Achievement Motivation in College Students With Self-Reported ADHD Diagnosis.
abstract: The present study aimed to investigate aspects of health and motivation in a subpopulation of college students with ADHD.
  
  
  
  Seventy-seven college students with self-reported ADHD (49 women; M age = 25.82, SD = 4.62) and 120 college students without ADHD (65 women; M age = 25.17, SD = 5.41) participated in an online survey assessing their health, dietary habits, and achievement motivation.
  
  
  
  College students with ADHD showed impairment in psychological functioning, impairment in their mental health, and reported more ambition and less self-control. Furthermore, we found gender differences: Women with ADHD reported worse psychological functioning, and the gender differences in obsessive-compulsive behavior and compensatory effort were mediated by the timing of diagnosis.
  
  
  
  College students, especially women, with ADHD struggle with health-related issues. Some of these gender differences might be due to under diagnosis of girls in childhood. Differences in achievement motivation might indicate compensatory mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF), Frankfurt, Germany merkt@dipf.de.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Merkt
authors.affiliation: German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF), Frankfurt, Germany Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Caterina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gawrilow
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D057566:Self Report; D000068356:Self-Control; D012737:Sex Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities
keywords: college students; dietary habits; gender; health; motivation