Academic Motivation Deficits in Adolescents with ADHD and Associations with Academic Functioning

Nov 20, 2019Journal of abnormal child psychology

Low Academic Motivation in Teens with ADHD and Its Link to School Performance

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Abstract

Adolescents with ADHD (n = 162) showed significant motivational deficits compared to their peers without ADHD (n = 140).

Adolescents with ADHD exhibited lower intrinsic motivation (d = 0.49) and extrinsic motivation (d = 0.43) than those without ADHD.
Amotivation levels were also higher in adolescents with ADHD (d = 0.42), indicating a lack of drive towards academic tasks.
In the ADHD group, higher levels of amotivation were linked to poorer homework performance and lower math fluency.
Conversely, higher extrinsic motivation in adolescents with ADHD correlated with better homework performance and higher GPA.
For adolescents without ADHD, lower intrinsic motivation was associated with lower reading accuracy, while higher amotivation related to poorer homework performance.

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The present study evaluates differences in self-reported intrinsic and extrinsic academic motivation and amotivation between eighth-grade adolescents with (n = 162) and without (n = 140) ADHD. This study also examines associations between motivation and academic functioning with objective (i.e., grade point average, standardized reading and math scores) and cross-rater measurement (i.e., parent-reported homework performance). Multivariate analysis of variance controlling for sex, intelligence, and medication status found that adolescents with ADHD exhibited a significant motivational deficit compared to adolescents without ADHD across all areas of academic motivation, including intrinsic motivation (d = 0.49), extrinsic motivation (d = 0.43), and amotivation (d = 0.42). To examine whether motivation was differentially associated with academic impairment in the ADHD and comparison groups, a multi-group path analysis was conducted controlling for sex, intelligence, and medication status. Findings showed that motivation was differentially associated with academic impairment for adolescents with and without ADHD. For the comparison group, higher amotivation was associated with poorer homework performance and lower intrinsic motivation was associated with lower reading accuracy. In the ADHD group, higher amotivation was associated with poorer homework performance and math fluency, higher extrinsic motivation was associated with better homework performance and higher GPA, and higher intrinsic motivation was associated with higher reading accuracy. This study builds upon previous research in demonstrating that adolescents with ADHD have academic motivational deficits when compared to their peers without ADHD. Research is needed to understand the longitudinal interplay of academic motivation and academic functioning, with an eye towards developing or modifying interventions to increase academic motivation and academic success.

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Academic Motivation Deficits in Adolescents with ADHD and Associations with Academic Functioning

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