(PS1-D91) Dreaming Big, Looking Ahead: Relations Between Grit and Future Orientation in Youth with ADHD

Background: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder characterized by persistent difficulty with attention and focus in multiple domains. It is associated with greater impulsivity and decreased time perception compared to typically developing controls (Ptacek et al 2019). Grit, a construct centered around persistent effort towards consistent long-term goals, is understudied in ADHD. Grit is associated with accomplishing long-term goals, and higher achievement in typically developing (TD) populations (Duckworth et al 2007). In TD adolescents, grit has been found to correlate with future orientation, a domain of time perception related to one’s ability to look ahead to the future (Muenks et al, 2017). We hypothesized that youth with ADHD would have less grit and be less future oriented than typically developing controls. Additionally, we expect to find that more impulsive individuals would be more likely to have less grit, and individuals that had more grit would have more future orientation.

Method: Participants included 116 TD and 130 ADHD-Combined presentation children and young adults (mean age 17.1, SD 4.2). All individuals received a clinical evaluation to confirm diagnosis, including the Conners’ Rating Scale-3: Long Version (parent & teacher; CPRS-3; Conners et al., 2008) and the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC-IV; Shaffer, Fisher, & Lucas, 2004), DISC-Young Adult (DISC-IV-YA; Shaffer, Fisher, & Lucas, 2004) or the Mini International Neuropsychological Interview for children (M.I.N.I.-KID; Sheehan et al., 2010). We administered the self-report Short Grit Scale (Duckworth, 2009), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS; Patton et al., 1995; BIS-11; Fossati et al., 2002) and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory Future Orientation subscale (ZTPI, Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999). The BIS was used to capture aspects of impulsivity while the ZTPI was used to capture future orientation.

Results: Youth with ADHD reported more impulsivity (t(232)=12.1, p< 0.001), less grit (t(228)=-10.0, p< 0.001) and less future orientation (t(163)=-5.74, p< 0.001) compared to those without ADHD. We also found that greater grit was associated with greater future orientation in individuals without ADHD (β=0.256, p=0.016,), and in youth with ADHD (β=0.318, p=0.005). Greater impulsivity was associated with lower grit in both youth with ADHD (β=-0.606, p< 0.001) and without ADHD (β=-0.666, p< 0.001).

Discussion: These results suggest that both future orientation and impulsivity are associated with grit in youth with ADHD and their typically developing counterparts. Further research is needed to better understand the relationship between future orientation, impulsivity and grit in youth with ADHD, and if targeting one or more of these characteristics can result in improved outcomes for youth with ADHD.