To better understand how ADHD shapes the modern college experience, it is essential to examine its prevalence in the college population over the past 20 years. While reported prevalence rates of ADHD in undergraduate populations have generally increased over the past two decades, variation in diagnostic criteria, self-report methods, and institutional practices makes the true trend difficult to determine – underscoring the need for further research to clarify these patterns and their implications.
One pressing question about ADHD is why it is highly prevalent if it is linked with negative symptomatology, such as distractibility and impulsivity, which contribute to poorer outcomes. Two modern theoretical perspectives have sought to answer this; the Evolutionary Mismatch Hypothesis (Le Cunff, 2024) and the Zetetic Style of ADHD (Steglich-Petersen & Varga, 2023), which both focus on how high-level curiosity among ADHD individuals may be responsible for common ADHD symptomology and challenges. The concept of High Trait Curiosity is novel theoretical account proposed by Le Cunff (2024) yet to be fully tested and requiring empirical studies to provide evidence for the hypothesis (2024). Study 2 takes the first step at examining evidence for this new hypothesis.