title: Progression of impairment in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder through the transition out of high school: Contributions of parent involvement and college attendance.
abstract: Long-term, prospective follow-up studies of children diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show that symptoms tend to decline with age, but impairments in daily life functioning often persist into adulthood. We examined the developmental progression of impairments before and after the transition out of high school in relation to parent involvement during adolescence, parent support during adulthood, and college attendance, using 8 waves of data from the prospective 16-year follow-up of the Multimodal Treatment of ADHD (MTA) study. Participants were 548 proband children diagnosed with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) ADHD Combined Type and 258 age- and sex-matched comparison children (Local Normative Comparison Group; LNCG) randomly sampled from probands' schools. Impairment was assessed consistently by parent report from childhood through adulthood. Results showed that impairment worsens over time both before and after the transition to adulthood for those with ADHD histories, in contrast to non-ADHD peers, whose impairments remained stably low over time. However, impairment stabilized after leaving high school for young adults with ADHD histories who attended college. Involved parenting in adolescence was associated with less impairment overall. Attending college was associated with a stable post-high school trajectory of impairment regardless of parents' involvement during adolescence, but young adults with histories of involved parenting and who attended college were the least impaired overall.
authors: Department of Psychology, Carleton University.
authors: Andrea L
authors: AL
authors: Howard
authors: Department of Psychology, Carleton University.
authors: Noelle J
authors: NJ
authors: Strickland
authors: Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
authors: Desiree W
authors: DW
authors: Murray
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
authors: Leanne
authors: 0000-0001-6066-1669
authors: L
authors: Tamm
authors: Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Irvine.
authors: James M
authors: JM
authors: Swanson
authors: Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley.
authors: Stephen P
authors: SP
authors: Hinshaw
authors: Department of Psychiatry, Ohio State University.
authors: L Eugene
authors: LE
authors: Arnold
authors: Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Pittsburgh.
authors: Brooke S G
authors: BSG
authors: Molina
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012944:Social Support; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014495:Universities; D055815:Young Adult