1Cademy - Double Deficit in Self-Regulation

Concept

"Double Deficit" in Self-Regulation

For most students who experience the shift into emerging adulthood during their college, this experience brings the a marked loss of parental supervision and structure, and a corresponding dramatic increase in independence in academic work, social activity, substance use, and daily life rhythms. This new environment demand high organizational skills and long-term planning, while at the same time provides more immediate, short-term rewards. Thus, executive demands increase just as contextual support for effective executive control decreases.
For college students with ADHD, these increased demands on executive control occur at a time of ‘‘double deficit’’ in self-regulation.
First, individuals with ADHD tend to have poorer executive functioning and a stronger aversion to delay in reward than those without ADHD.
Second, their executive functioning and motivational systems are not yet fully mature and are particularly susceptible to the effect of high socio-emotional arousal.
Thus, college students with ADHD are more susceptible to executive failures in college than their peers do. This gives the implication that effective intervention for ADHD among college students must lean more heavily on moderating the self-regulation demands of the environment, including increasing external support and decreasing challenging contextual factors.

Updated 2022-02-26

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