ADHD: Perceived Effectiveness of Motivation and Study Skills Intervention

Event: Undergraduate Research Symposium
Date: May 18, 2019
Location: UCI Student Center

Presenter: Yulissa Rojas-Montes de Oca, Francesca E. Trane, Nina Ozbardakci, Priti Shah
Mentor: Susanne Jaeggi, Masha R. Jones, Martin Buschkuehl

Title: ADHD: Perceived Effectiveness of Motivation and Study Skills Intervention

Abstract

​The present study seeks to address parents’ perception of motivation and study skills interventions for children with ADHD. The study consisted of 59 children between the ages of 7 and 14 (mean age = 10.13 years, female = 28.8%) who were randomly assigned to either intervention. Thirty children participated in the motivation intervention and 29 children participated in the study skills intervention. Of those 59, 25 children (female = 36%) and their parents (female = 92%) returned for a follow-up session approximately 4 to 6 months after completing the intervention: 14 participants from the motivation condition and 11 participants from the study skills condition. To evaluate the long-term effectiveness of both the motivation and study skills interventions, a semi-structured interview with parents was conducted. Parents were asked a series of open-ended questions about their experiences and those of their children such as “can you tell us about your child’s experience participating in our session?” and “since the intervention has passed, have you noticed any changes in your child’s habits or behaviors?”. This qualitative research is essential, because giving open ended questions allows us to receive more detailed information about how the intervention may have influenced multiple domains of the participants’ everyday lives. Themes emerging from this data include parents of children in the motivation group reporting changes in their children’s persistence and beliefs about intelligence and self-efficacy, as compared to parents of children in the study skills group reporting changes in task-specific behaviors such as note-taking skills and prioritization.

Yulissa Rojas-Montes de Oca at UCI's 2019 UROP Symposium