Browsing by Subject "ADHD"

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    Barriers to being seen: the interpersonal experiences of AFAB University students with ADHD in South Africa
    (2025) Malefane, Reitumetse; Spedding, Maxine
    Adults who were assigned female at birth (AFAB) are an under-represented group in ADHD literature and little is known about their lived experiences. This study aimed to explore how AFAB university students with ADHD experience interpersonal relationships. Using an interpretive phenomenological framework, 12 AFAB students from a South African university were recruited to participate in individual semi-structured interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed to synthesise the data and generate a narrative account of the following two overarching themes, ‘compromised connection and vulnerability' and ‘strategising to find connection'. The findings depicted that the participants' interpersonal experiences were marked by frequent invalidation, judgement, and misunderstanding from those in their life. These factors were described as barriers to experiencing close and fulfilling interpersonal relationships. However, the participants also described several strategies that they believed buffered their negative social experiences. Whilst these strategies were shown to limit conflict and alienation, several of them were also demonstrated to be exhausting and detrimental to the participants' overall wellbeing. As such, this study highlighted the importance of mutually accommodating and supportive interpersonal relationships for AFAB adults with ADHD.
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    Experiences of camouflaging by AFAB University students with ADHD in South Africa
    (2025) Prinsloo, Estelle; Spedding, Maxine
    Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that continues to be underdiagnosed in people assigned female at birth (AFAB). Increasingly, the gender disparity in ADHD prevalence rates is attributed to differences in the disorder's presentation. A factor that is yet to be explored is the role that camouflaging, or acting neurotypically, plays in the presentation of ADHD in AFAB people. Camouflaging, which has mainly been studied in relation to autism, refers to cognitive and behavioural adaptations that assist neurodiverse people to cope cognitively and socially. This study aimed to investigate camouflaging from the perspective of AFAB university students with ADHD. University students were chosen as the study's sample population as few studies on ADHD focus on this population group. By using an interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach, the study explored the experiences of camouflaging by 12 AFAB university students with ADHD. The study also sought to gain insight into the camouflaging strategies that participants recognise themselves using and under what circumstances. Three group experiential themes (GETs) were identified in the data, namely Experiences of Living with ADHD, Experiences of Camouflaging, and Camouflaging Strategies. The themes provide important context for participants' need to camouflage and describe their experiences and perceptions of acting neurotypically. Furthermore, the data show that participants employ camouflaging strategies similar to those used by autistic people as well as strategies that speak to challenges more specific to ADHD. By exploring how AFAB university students with ADHD navigate and adapt to neurotypical standards and expectations, the study contributes to a growing understanding of how the disorder manifests in AFAB people and to ADHD research in South Africa.
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    Functional Impairment in school-aged South African children with ADHD: design, implementation, and evaluation of a targeted intervention
    (2025) Fischer, Mareli; Thomas, Kevin G F
    Despite the fact that Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a globally prevalent psychiatric disorder with significant lifelong impact on the quality of life of diagnosed individuals, there is little Africa-based research considering (a) the functional impact of the disorder within the population or (b) locally appropriate interventions that might alleviate that impact. Study 1 was a needs assessment project that described the functional impairment experienced by a South African sample of school-aged children with ADHD (N = 99). The specific focus was on identifying the areas of life where those children faced the most severe challenges related to their symptoms. I used the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children (MINI-Kid) as a diagnostic tool, and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and the Impairment Rating Scale (IRS) as measures of functional impairment. Each of these was administered to the parent of a child with ADHD. Results indicated that although ADHD diagnosed children experienced significant impairment in all domains of functioning (including family relationships, social interactions, activities/hobbies, and home life), they experienced especially severe difficulties in the school environment. Study 2, which built on the results from Study 1, described the design, implementation, and testing of a psychosocial intervention (an 8-week parent-training group) targeting the identified domains of ADHD related functional impairment. Participants (parents of school-aged ADHD-diagnosed children) were pseudo-randomly assigned to an intervention group (n = 62), a non-structured support group (n = 66), or a waitlist control group (n = 50). The same diagnostic process and measures of functional impairment as in Study 1 were used to establish the child's pre intervention functioning. The measures were re-administered immediately post-intervention and, for the intervention group only, 6 months later. Results indicated that participants assigned to the intervention condition rated their child's functional impairment as significantly improved following their participation in the 8-week parent-training process, and these improvements were sustained at the 6-month follow-up measurement point. Although analyses detected no significant between-group differences in functional impairment at baseline, at the post-intervention measurement point ratings from intervention group participants were significantly lower than those of participants assigned to the two control groups. The major conclusion, therefore, is that this parent-training intervention is effective in relieving broad-based ADHD-related functional impairment in low-income and low-resource settings. Studying functional impairment and interventions in this way will pave the way for evidence-based, cost-effective treatment plans focused on alleviating the myriad of personal and societal challenges associated with ADHD.
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    Prevalence of attention problems and the efficacy of a short-term parent-teacher intervention for possible ADHD in a low SES community in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng
    (2025) Downing, Vicky; Schrieff-Brown, Leigh
    Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a neurodevelopmental disorder, impacts a large number of children. Treatment access barriers in South Africa, and long-term effectiveness of pharmacological interventions, particularly for socio-economically disadvantaged individuals, necessitate low-cost, evidence-based interventions. The aim of this dissertation, comprising two studies, was to determine the efficacy of a short-term, teacher-led, parent training intervention, which I designed based on available evidence and best practice recommendations, in alleviating attention problems in learners aged 8 to12 years from a disadvantaged school in Gauteng. Study One intended to identify the extent of undiagnosed attention problems in the same school, through various standardised and non-standardised measures. Parents, of children presenting with attention problems, were then invited to participate in a teacher-led parent psychosocial training intervention, the efficacy of which was investigated in Study Two. Both studies utilise a cross-sectional and quantitative design, with (informal /descriptive) qualitative observations for Study Two. For Study One, after screening for possible ADHD, I collected information on parent demographic details, risk factors for ADHD, and co-morbid difficulties. Study Two followed a pre-and post-intervention design, quantifying changes in parent-, and teacher reported attention-related problems in child participants from Study One. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, with Study One using t-tests, and Fisher's Exact tests; Study Two used the Reliable Change Index (RCI; Jacobson & Traux, 1991), and within-group analyses, assessing the efficacy of the programme. Study One (N=30) results indicated that ± 73% of child participants were assessed to have possible ADHD; they tended to be older, descriptively, than child participants without attention-related problems, and male. Study Two (N=17) results indicate that the intervention showed moderate effect sizes for improvements in memory-related difficulties as assessed by parent and teacher participants with parents reporting (qualitative) positive changes in aspects not measured by the standardised assessment, and encouraging outcomes for a promising locally-applicable psychosocial intervention . Despite the noted limitations, both studies provide contextually-relevant insights into difficulties experienced by parents, children, and teachers regarding inequalities in access to quality healthcare, multilingualism, and educational provision for learners not only with attentional difficulties, but with special educational needs more generally.