Date of Award

Summer 8-5-2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Arts - School Psychology

Department

Human Services

First Advisor

Luis Aguerrevere

Second Advisor

Nina Ellis-Harness

Third Advisor

Frankie Clark

Fourth Advisor

Sarah Savoy

Abstract

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) was established as a condition initially considered to be outgrown; however, research later demonstrated that about one-half to two-thirds of children with ADHD had persistent symptoms into adolescence and adulthood (Resnick, 2005). It was estimated that the percentage of college-aged students with ADHD ranged somewhere between 2 and 8% (DuPaul et al., 2009). Assessing for an ADHD diagnosis determination in college student-aged individuals was a challenge that required strategies not typically used when assessing for other disorders or within different age ranges (Lovett & Davis, 2017). There was a lack of consistent strategies amongst clinicians on how to best evaluate adult ADHD. It was specifically reported that clinicians expressed diminished confidence in their ability to determine accurate diagnostic judgments for adult ADHD cases (Schneider et al., 2019). The purpose of this study was to determine the classification accuracy of the Behavior Assessment System for Children (Third Ed.; BASC-3) Inattention/Hyperactivity composite t-score in predicting the diagnosis of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder among college students who completed a psychological assessment through the Stephen F. Austin State University School Psychology Assessment Center. It was hypothesized that the BASC-3 would be a strong predictor of the final ADHD diagnosis due to high levels of specificity and sensitivity. An exploratory analysis was conducted for misclassified (i.e., false positive or false negative) individuals to determine other effective predictors of the final diagnosis. Finally, for individuals that did not receive an exclusive ADHD diagnosis, common comorbidities and differential diagnoses were determined.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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