Predicting Quality of Life of College Students Diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

While an ever-increasing amount of literature exists regarding various aspects of ADHD, the relationship of functional impairments to important life and social skills, as well as professional functionality remains relatively unexplored. The Barkley Functional impairment scale is a recently developed and untested scale, especially with respect to other constructs of college life. While the reported validity is promising for use of evaluating functional impairments in people with ADHD, the validity and utility of the scale should be evaluated in relation to similar constructs to determine overall benefit. By doing so, researchers and other professionals in the field of counseling, rehabilitation, and professional development can address the relationships, and can improve counseling and rehabilitation services people with ADHD. Therefore, a study encompassing the relationships among measures of self-perceived functional impairment, quality of life, college self-efficacy, and career decision state could prove beneficial in understanding how aspects of ADHD affect individuals throughout the college experience. The purpose of this study was to address and to evaluate the strength of these relationships. If the self-perceived functional impairment scores were deemed to be associated with quality of life and college self-efficacy, the use of the BFIS as a diagnostic and prescriptive tool could be supported to improve the effectiveness of counseling and rehabilitation services for college students with ADHD. Four research questions guided this study. The first question stated, "Is the self-perceived functional impairment related to quality of life?" The second question stated, "Is the self-perceived functional impairment associated with college self-efficacy?" The third question stated, "What is the relationship between perceived level of functional impairment and career decision state as measured by indecision and satisfaction with choice?" The fourth question stated, "What is the relationship between perceived level of functional impairment, college self-efficacy, and career decision state with respect to self-perceived quality of life in students diagnosed with ADHD?" The hypothesis for the first question was, "There is an inverse correlation between self-perceived functional impairment and quality of life in students diagnosed with ADHD." The hypothesis for the second question was, "There is an inverse correlation between self-perceived functional impairment and college self-efficacy in students diagnosed with ADHD." The third question had two hypotheses. The first hypothesis for question three was "There is a positive correlation between level of indecision and perceived level of functional impairment." The second hypothesis for question three was, "There is a positive correlation between degree of dissatisfaction with career choice and perceived level of functional impairment." The hypothesis for the fourth question was, "Functional impairment, college self-efficacy, and career decision state all will capture significant independent variation in the prediction of quality of life in students diagnosed with ADHD." The first, second, and third hypotheses were tested using Pearson Product-Moment correlations. The fourth hypothesis was tested by using linear multiple regression. Data were collected from 150 of 1108 students registered with the Students with Disabilities Resource Center (SDRC) at Florida State University through an email questionnaire. Two emails were sent approximately two weeks apart to obtain participants. Volunteer participants were potentially compensated by having their anonymous identification number submitted to a raffle drawing to receive one of three prizes: a $150 gift card, a $75 gift card, and a $50 gift card. A web-based survey program was utilized, consisting of a background/demographics questionnaire and the Occupational Alternatives Questionnaire (OAQ), the Barkley Functional Impairment Scale-Long Form (BFIS-LF), the World Health Organization Quality of Life-Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF), and the College Self-Efficacy Inventory (CSEI). This instrument was approved by the Florida State Institutional Review Board (IRB) prior to utilization with participants. Only complete surveys were used in the calculation of results. Results of the study showed the first hypothesis was accepted that quality of life is moderately and inversely associated with perceived level of functional impairment. The second hypothesis also was accepted. College self-efficacy was inversely, but weakly associated with perceived level of functional impairment. The first part of the third hypothesis was rejected that the level of indecision with career choice was related to perceived level of functional impairment. The second part of this hypothesis was accepted that dissatisfaction with career choices was weakly correlated with perceived level of functional impairment. The fourth hypothesis was confirmed that perceived functional impairment, self-efficacy, and level of dissatisfaction with career choice significantly contributed to the quality of life of students diagnosed with ADHD. Levels of functional impairment and dissatisfaction were inversely correlated with quality of life in the prediction model. The information gathered yields beneficial information about the use of the BFIS in disability and rehabilitation counseling centers as a tool for addressing perceived functional impairments and related constructs of students diagnosed with ADHD. The correlations found among self-perceived functional impairment, college self-efficacy, the dissatisfaction portion of career decision state, and quality of life of people with ADHD could significantly benefit the manner in which services are provided to people utilizing various disability services on college campuses. Based on these results, the utility of the BFIS was supported as a prescriptive tool and as an instrument for counselors to use to address the relationship between self-perceived functional impairment, college self-efficacy, dissatisfaction with career choice concerns, and quality of life in college students diagnosed with ADHD.