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Elizabeth A. Shepherd, Psy.D., is a 2021 graduate of the Psy.D. Program in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University, New England

Dissertation Committee:

  • Kathi Borden, PhD, Committee Chair
  • Barbara Belcher-Timme, PsyD, Committee Member
  • Susan Vonderheide, PhD, Committee Member

Keywords

adult ADHD, homelessness, ADHD screening, archival data

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2021

Abstract

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, henceforth known as ADHD, is a common psychiatric problem recognized and diagnosed in children; however, it is not recognized or diagnosed as often in adults. There has been some research illustrating a relationship between ADHD and homelessness. The purpose of this study was to further explore if ADHD could be a hidden factor contributing to homelessness in adults. This descriptive study utilized archival data of patients at a health center in the United States to examine the relationship between homelessness and ADHD. Two analyses were completed using IBM SPSS version 25. Starting from a master dataset including all the patients at the Health Center (N=2980), two separate samples of 300 were randomly selected for inclusion in this study. Chi-square analyses were used to discover group differences for separate analyses of each sample after checking for differences in the samples in gender, race, and homeless status or ADHD. The first dataset examined the frequency of ADHD among a random sample of 150 homeless vs. 150 not homeless patients. The second dataset examined the frequency of homelessness among 150 patients with a diagnosis of ADHD vs. 150 patients without a diagnosis of ADHD. Both analyses revealed that there was not a significant difference in the frequency of ADHD diagnoses between patients who were homeless and those who were not homeless or in homelessness between patients diagnosed with ADHD vs. those not diagnosed with ADHD. However, this study highlights the importance of ADHD screenings for all patients. The study’s results, other findings, limitations, and implications for future research are discussed.

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Elizabeth A. Shepherd

ORCID Scholar ID# 0000-0002-0167-1442

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