The subject matters: relations among types of anxiety, ADHD symptoms, math performance, and literacy performance

ABSTRACT

In this study, we extended a model of the relations among ADHD symptoms, anxiety, and academic performance. Undergraduates (N = 515) completed self-report measures of anxiety (i.e. trait, test, math, and literacy) and ADHD symptoms. During the study, they completed math and literacy measures and reported their current (i.e. state) anxiety three times. There were significant correlations among ADHD symptoms and all measures of anxiety. However, neither ADHD symptoms nor trait anxiety were correlated with math or literacy performance. Test-anxious students reported increasing state anxiety as the study progressed. In contrast, math-anxious students reported increased state anxiety following the math tasks but not the literacy tasks and literacy-anxious students reported increased state anxiety following the literacy tasks but not the math tasks. With respect to performance, math-anxious students had worse math performance and literacy-anxious students had worse literacy performance whereas test anxiety was not directly related to performance on either math or literacy tasks. Patterns of relations did not differ for men and women, but, except for literacy anxiety, women reported higher levels of all types of anxiety. These results could help educators understand how affective responses are related to university students’ academic performance.

KEYWORDS:

• ADHD symptoms
• anxiety
• university
• academic outcomes

Acknowledgements

This project was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada through a Discovery Grant to Jo-Anne LeFevre and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through a Doctoral Scholarship to Sabrina Di Lonardo Burr. The authors thank Jill Turner for her assistance with this study and Dr. Erin Maloney for her feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada: [grant number RGPIN-2017-06355]; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: [grant number 752-2019-2005].