2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This paper will provide an update on our research exploring the college experience of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) college students with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Individuals with ADHD make up a growing fraction of neurodiverse college students. However, despite their increasing college presence, little is known about their college experiences and academic success. Our proposed project will contribute to this topic by studying the relationship between teaching practices and the academic success of STEM college students with ADHD. The overarching goal of our project is to disseminate actionable recommendations to higher education instructors and administrators.

This project involves two sequential studies guided by the social model of disability. This model supports the view that people with disabilities face barriers resulting from how the system and society operate, not the impairment itself. This model centers on identifying and removing systemic and environmental barriers that affect people with disabilities.

The first study focuses on students’ college experiences and academic success and has two phases. Phase 1 is a quantitative analysis of a secondary, longitudinal dataset (comprising data from approximately 45,000 first-year students, including over 2,000 students with ADHD). This phase investigates the relationships between pre-college factors, college experiences, and academic success of college students with ADHD. Structural equation modeling (SEM) enables us to highlight the role of college experiences (i.e., academic adjustment, faculty interaction, and sense of belonging) and conduct subsequent mediation analyses.

Phase 2 is a scoping literature review to summarize research findings and identify research gaps regarding the college experiences of students with ADHD. We found a total of 3,493 articles from seven different databases. In our abstract screening process, the inclusion and exclusion criteria establish that qualifying articles emphasize the college experiences or academic outcomes of college students with ADHD, focus on students’ academic adjustment and classroom experiences, and are published in peer-reviewed journals or conference papers. A total of 74 abstracts meet the inclusion criteria.

The second study will focus on the role of teaching practices as a precursor to academic success. This study is also comprised of two phases; phase 1 is designing and administering a student survey, and phase 2 is conducting in-depth interviews with STEM college students with ADHD.

This paper will provide details on phases 1 and 2 of the first study and our future work (i.e., study 2).