Education news

ADHD diagnosis puts girls at much higher risk for other mental health problems #adhd

Do you know what the correlation between mental health challenges and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are in girls? To learn more about how girls with ADHD are at a higher risk than girls without ADHD, read more here!

0adhddiagnosticform_1300x725

When someone is diagnosed with learning challenges, it is often more than what meets the surface. A new research shows this is true for girls with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder where these girls are at a high risk for other and even sometimes multiple mental disorders. Some of these girls face more serious problems.

Share the idea

New research shows ADHD can affect girls in many ways. They can get other mental health problems.

Girls, Dyslexia and Mental Disorders: The Connection

These girls are often correlated to issues such as abusive relationships and poor grades or even drug abuse as they get older. While these girls express challenges in learning such as being easily distracted or unable to complete a task without being bored and it was recognized that they would probably have a higher rate of other mental health challenges than healthy girls, the numbers are astounding.

Girls with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are at higher risk than girls without ADHD for multiple mental disorders that often lead to cascading problems such as abusive relationships, teenage pregnancies, poor grades and drug abuse, UCLA psychologists report in the journal Pediatrics.

Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert

Key takeaways

  1. Females afflicted with ADHD are more likely to develop mental illnesses. Subsequently, they are at higher risk for teen pregnancies, anxiety issues, drug abuse, and more.
  2. Girls are harder to diagnose with ADHD than boys. Their symptoms are often dismissed as girls just acting detached or flaky.
  3. Parents of female ADHD sufferers should watch their child for potentially dangerous signs of unruly behaviour, panic attacks, and depression. Prompt treatment can help girls do better academically and in social situations.
Focus Foundations Free resources for attention, focus and follow-through, built for parents. Explore Focus Foundations

Is your child struggling in school?

Get your free personalized learning roadmap

You describe what you see at home. We turn it into a plan you start this week.

  • Answer 5 short questionnaires about what you already notice, 30–45 minutes at your own kitchen table
  • Your child sits no test and gets no score: nothing to schedule, nothing for them to dread
  • You do the answering, the AI does the writing, and a person reviews it before it reaches you
  • Access all 40+ courses instantly: reading, math, focus, processing and more, with new ones added regularly

Why we use AI, plainly: it writes from a knowledge base our team maintains and audits. We work through it line by line and pull anything the evidence stops supporting. The roadmap you get on Tuesday reflects what we corrected on Monday, and a human still reads it before you do.

Your school district must evaluate your child free of charge if you ask in writing, whatever your income and whatever the outcome (US, 34 CFR 300.111 and 300.301(b)). That route takes time and answers a different question than you do. This one starts today, from what you already know.

Get my free assessment & 7-day trial Cancel anytime during your trial.

Your answers stay yours. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not hand identifiable assessment data to outside AI companies to train their models.

A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too. That is the only route to those supports.

· Learning Success expert Writes about the learning brain for parents who want plain answers. Every article is grounded in current neuroscience and classroom practice.