This paper critically reviews a two-study article by Frazier et al. (2007), published in the Journal of Learning Disabilities, which investigates academic achievement problems among individuals with ADHD. The first study uses meta-analytic procedures to synthesize findings from 72 published studies, revealing that children with ADHD score lower than adolescents, who in turn score lower than adults. The second study surveys 380 first-year college students with ADHD across 18 East Coast institutions, finding that ADHD symptoms are significantly associated with poor academic functioning. The paper evaluates methodological strengths and limitations of both studies, including sampling concerns, gender imbalance, and the collapsing of age groups.
The first study in an article published in the Journal of Learning Disabilities by Frazier et al. (2007) examines published literature since 1990 in order to produce a meta-analysis showing the "magnitude of achievement problems" that confront individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In other words, the purpose was to determine exactly what problems ADHD sufferers encounter when trying to acquire knowledge. In order to identify the difficulties that present roadblocks for those individuals — and to help ADHD students become more academically competent — the first study reviews existing literature and uses "quantitative, meta-analytic procedures" as a research design in order to thoroughly interpret the results of previous work (Frazier).
The first research section examined 72 studies that fulfilled all appropriate criteria: 54 studies involved children, 7 involved adolescents, 4 examined college students, and 7 evaluated adults (Frazier). The research showed that children with ADHD scored lower than adolescents, and adolescents in turn scored lower than adults with ADHD (Frazier).
The second study examined the academic problems encountered by 380 first-year college students with ADHD; the students were drawn from 18 colleges and universities on the East Coast of the United States. Confidential questionnaires were administered to these students and to their parents, and logistic regression was used as the research design. The outcome confirmed what researchers might reasonably expect: ADHD symptoms are "significantly associated with problems in academic functioning" for college students (Frazier). These findings led Frazier and colleagues to conclude that "routine screening of college students for ADHD" might be helpful in preventing the academic failure associated with ADHD.
The results also showed that students with ADHD are more readily able to catch errors in their work when math and spelling are involved; however, when reading and writing skills are challenged, students with ADHD are less quick to recognize their mistakes (Frazier).
In the meta-analysis study there were a number of research projects of varying sizes; the authors simply averaged "across measures" such as reading scores, spelling scores, and math results in order to arrive at a "single effect size," which seems less than conclusive (Frazier). It also seems questionable that, notwithstanding some studies involved college students and others involved only adults — some well beyond college age — both groups "were collapsed into a single group labeled adults" (Frazier). This merging of distinct age cohorts raises concerns about the precision of the findings.
"Flaws in averaging, age grouping, and sample size effects"
"Gender imbalance, self-reporting bias, and research proposals"
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