Study Looks at Impact of ADHD on Homework

It should come as no surprise to parents and teachers that researchers have found that students who struggle with attention and executive functions are less likely to complete and submit homework assignments. A study earlier this year in the Journal of School Psychology looked at this phenomenon over a period of 18 months in 104 middle school students who had definitive diagnoses of ADHD.

The researchers looked at all the steps that students had to complete to be successful with homework, something they called the “completion cycle.” These include:

• Accurately recording assignments with sufficient detail

• Bringing home the materials needed for the assignment

• Planning ahead to complete the work (ie: not procrastinating)

• Staying focused and completing the work correctly

• Bringing the completed work back to school and handing it in.

Even where teachers or parents provided some homework support, most of these responsibilities fell upon students to meet.

Multiple teachers were questioned about assignment completion and their reports about each student were highly consistent across classes, with teachers reporting that students with ADHD were turning in an average of 12 percent fewer assignments than their classmates.

Furthermore, there was a strong correlation between the percentage of assignments turned in at the beginning of the study and students’ school grades some 18 months later, even when controlling for numerous academic and socio-economic factors that could affect grades. Poor homework completion was associated with low grades and low grades were associated with lower future homework completion rates. The study also found that students whose parents rated their “homework material management” as problematic at the inception of the study were likely to be reported by teachers as having a lower percentage of assignments turned in as the study came to an end.

The researchers note that homework assignment completion problems are persistent across time and can be an important intervention target for teens with ADHD. For parents (and teachers) dealing with students who seem scattered and disorganized in numerous areas of their lives, a focus on homework may be a good first step towards improving their school performance.

All That Isn’t Gold May Not Glitter

With the Olympic torch having been extinguished on Sunday, the athletes are now home with their medals. What do they see when looking at the glistening bronze, silver, or gold? The answer may be somewhat counterintuitive.

While we would generally think of second place as being a more desirable ranking than third place, silver medalists tend to exhibit less happy responses to their Olympic results than bronze medalists. So close to the gold, they are inclined to focus on what they did not achieve; whereas bronze winners are confronted with being so close to not having won any medal at all, and thus tend to be more satisfied with their results. The differences in silver and gold winners’ responses are marked, whether revealed by self-report, observation, or even careful examination of the facial muscle movements and eye positions that differentiate polite smiles from genuine ones.

The phenomenon at work here is counterfactual thinking, i.e., the human tendency to wonder, “What if….?” Upward counterfactuals are better alternatives (e.g., “What if I had won the gold?”) and downward counterfactuals are worse alternatives (e.g., “What if I had not gotten any medal?”), with the salience of either type of counterfactual alternative depending on the situation. The primary function of counterfactual thoughts is to manage ongoing behavior. Considering what might have been is key to improving in the future.

In one interesting study, college students were contacted immediately after receiving an exam grade and asked to write down any counterfactual thoughts that came to mind. In other words, they were to list anything that might have occurred differently that would have resulted in a different grade. The more they thought about how they might have done better, the more they changed their study habits and improved their performance in the future. Counterfactual thinking, it seems, can be a helpful academic tool in the long run, even though it may be unpleasant to go through the "If Onlys" at the time.

While counterfactual thinking may be why a silver medalist is disappointed, it may also be why he or she has been able to succeed to the point of becoming an Olympic athlete to begin with, and with many triumphs along the way. Counterfactual thinking, in healthy moderation, could help nurture the growth of Olympic students as well.