Brief Report: Daily Living Skills are Impaired in Adolescents with ADHD

Daily living skills (DLS) are an aspect of adaptive functioning critical to positive adult outcomes in work, college, and independent living. However, less is known about whether adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) struggle with DLS, a potentially ideal time to provide intervention, prior to their becoming independent adults. We explored the profile of DLS behaviors in adolescents with ADHD. Caregivers of 150 adolescents (ages 13–18) with ADHD completed a measure of DLS, and rated how important their adolescent achieving various DLS was and whether a DLS intervention would be of interest. Youth with ADHD were rated Below Average in DLS based on normative data with particular deficits in Home Living and Community Use. Those with the Predominantly Inattentive Presentation were rated as having fewer problems in Self-Care than the Combined Presentation. A large proportion of adolescents with ADHD were not demonstrating age-appropriate DLS. Caregivers reported the majority of DLS items were at least moderately important for their adolescents to learn. More than 90% were interested in being contacted if a DLS intervention were to be offered. DLS could be an appropriate target for intervention for adolescents with ADHD. Clinicians should consider assessing DLS in youth with ADHD. Suggestions for assessing and intervening with DSLs in clinical practice and research are provided.