Racial and Ethnic Heterogeneity in Grit’s Relations With ADHD Symptom Severity and Impairment: Indications of Decreased Relevance in Asian Versus White College Students

Abstract

Objective:

Grit is a potential resilience factor that might help expand ADHD’s conceptualization and inform empowering interventions. Yet, no work has examined how components of grit, particularly consistency of interests (COI), may relate to ADHD symptom severity and impairment. Additionally, it is unclear whether these relations may differ with respect to one’s race and ethnicity. Thus, the current study aimed to examine whether race and ethnicity moderate grit and COI’s relations with ADHD symptom severity and impairment in college students.

Methods:

Participants, aged 18 to 25 years, were derived from two samples of a multisite college ADHD study: Exploratory Sample (N = 1,771; M_age = 19.21, SD = 1.40) and Confirmatory Sample (N = 3,809; M_age = 19.11, SD = 1.31). All participants self-reported ADHD symptom severity, functional impairment, and levels of grit.

Results:

Examination of main effects across samples revealed that grit and COI were significantly and negatively associated with ADHD symptom severity. Further, in a sample of participants with five or more ADHD symptoms (N = 1,153; M_age = 19.22, SD = 1.41), follow-up analyses investigating impairment revealed that grit had a significant, positive relation with impairment, and COI had a significant, negative relation with impairment. Grit’s relations with ADHD symptom severity and impairment were generally consistent across race and ethnicity. Yet, there was a significant moderating effect with respect to the White versus Asian comparison concerning COI-ADHD relations. Follow-up analyses revealed that the strength of these relations was significantly weaker in Asian college students.

Conclusion:

Results provided greater specificity in grit’s role as a resilience factor for ADHD and highlighted the need for further exploration of resilience factors to inform more comprehensive conceptualizations of ADHD in Asian college students.

Keywords

grit ADHD race and ethnicity college students

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