Pay Attention to Inattention: Exploring ADHD Symptoms in a Sample of Underachieving Gifted Students

Much has been written about the relationship of giftedness and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as the relationship between ADHD and underachievement. The present study examined whether students who were identified as gifted underachievers were more likely to manifest symptoms of ADHD, as measured by the ADHD-IV. Over half of the gifted underachievers met the screening criteria for ADHD based on teacher reports, and almost 30% of the gifted underachievers met the screening criteria for ADHD based on parent reports. Most of these students had elevated scores on the inattention scale. The prevalence of inattention was over 2 times as high as the prevalence in the norming sample using the teacher rating scales and over 5 times as high as the prevalence in the norming sample using the parent rating scales. Although parents and teachers rated students similarly on the hyperactivity scale, teachers rated students as more inattentive than parents did. However, elevated parent ratings of inattention negatively predicted students’ self-regulation, goal valuation, and self-efficacy. Self-regulation was most strongly related to inattention. We cannot know whether the gifted underachievers with high inattention scores have undiagnosed ADHD. However, our results suggest that a substantial percentage of gifted underachievers exhibit attentional problems at home, and that these attentional problems are severe enough to merit further examination.

Telling a Tale: How Underachievement Develops in Gifted Girls

In this multiple-narrative inquiry, we examined the narratives of four underachieving gifted girls to identify aspects that appear to have contributed to the onset, development, and resolution of academic underachievement. We found that academic achievement was disrupted when the participants experienced a sudden increase in curricular demands when transitioning to middle or high school. Participants’ negative self-perceptions, lack of learning skills, and negative relationships with teachers commonly contributed to the maintenance of the underachievement. Finally, the underachievement began to resolve when the girls had a clear goal in mind, which for three of them was being accepted to college.