¶ … ADHD and achievement: Meta-Analysis of the child, adolescent, and adult literatures and a concomitant study with college students" by Frazier (et al. 2007) was to examine the role of the learning disability ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) in determining the academic performance of students in college. Previous literature reviews had indicated that students with ADHD more likely than their non-LD counterparts to fail or repeat grades. However, there were a number of problems with these previous studies: first, not all ADHD students manifest academic problems. Secondly, other features of ADHD academic achievement like content domains (math vs. reading) and student demographics have not been rigorously studied. The study compared previous existing research studies of ADHD students to provide greater clarity upon the issue and then conducted a small, preliminary study of college students with ADHD at a single university.
Description of participants/sample
The article deployed two different kinds of research on ADHD students. The first study was a large meta-analysis of previous research which found multiple academic achievement problems for students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Age, gender, achievement domains, measurement methods (standardized testing vs. self-reports), samples, and diagnostic methods were all assessed. The second study was deliberately narrower in its intention and specifically focused on college students. Although the results were comparable to that of a meta-analysis, the second study was small and preliminary in nature and involved a self-reported quantitative questionnaire administered to both students and parents. The second study focused primarily upon college students with ADHD as a distinct phenomenon: "College students with ADHD are likely to have (a) higher ability levels, (b) greater academic success during primary and secondary school, and (c) better compensatory skills than individuals with ADHD from the general population" thus it was hypothesized they might exhibit different features than the general population (Fraizer...
2007).
Research design
To conduct the initial meta-analysis of the first study, "using the key terms ADHD, ADD, attention deficit, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and hyperactivity along with each of the linking terms of achievement, reading, math, spelling, language, grades, and education, several procedures were used separately to find as many empirical studies of ADHD and achievement as possible" (Fraizer et al. 2007). The search was limited to journal articles from the past 15 years. "Inclusion criteria went beyond standardized achievement test scores and incorporated related variables that functioned as proxies for achievement" and excluded variables such as truancy which might be affected by variables other than academic performance (Fraizer et al. 2007). 79 studies ultimately met the criteria established by the researchers. "Investigations were coded according to several domains of interest to assess whether the comparisons were statistically significant" (Fraizer et al. 2007).
In the second study, "the sample comprised dyads (a student and one parent) of first-year students enrolled in degree programs at a university in the northeast corridor of the United States (Fraizer et al. 2007). Participants and their parents both completed the College ADHD Response Evaluation (CARE) along with student and parent response inventories designed by the article's authors to assess ADHD symptoms.
Methods of data collection
In the first study, the 79 post-1990 articles subjected to the meta-analysis were accrued through a widespread search of various journal articles, and then analyzed according to the criteria determined by the researchers regarding the academic performance of ADHD students and their characteristics. In the second study, a population of 380 parent-student dyads was analyzed for similar characteristics using quantitatively-assessable inventories.
In the first study, homogeneity analyses was used to provide an "analysis of variance, in that homogeneity is the sum of squares of effect sizes about their weighted mean.…
