Teens and goals: New work pubilshed by former student Mahsa Sadeghi in the Canadian Journal of School Psychology
Setting and attaining goals is linked to many positive outcomes for youth, but not all youth are successful in goal pursuit–-particularly in the context of having ADHD. In her doctoral work, Mahsa Sadeghi, conducted interviews with youth who do or do not have ADHD to examine similarities and differences in their goal striving. Both groups were also compared to undergraduate students at the University of Waterloo. Common themes highlighted reasons for, resources toward, and stressors associated with goal pursuit. However, youth with ADHD rated academic goals as less interesting even when successfully attained, applied more effort and allocated more strategies even when goals were of high interest (e.g., hobbies), endorsed using fewer executive functions (e.g., planning, organizing) during goal pursuit, and did not link immediate goals to future ambitions. This qualitative study provides a voice for youth with ADHD regarding their experience of goal-striving and offers a perspective for clinicians, caregivers, and educators to consider when working with adolescents who have this relatively common neurodevelopmental disorder. Mahsa's work was recently published in the Canadian Journal of School Psychology (https://doi.org/10.1177/082957352513246).