ABSTRACT
Although attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has garnered considerable research, controversy, and even notoriety among researchers as well as the popular media in recent years, only a small amount of our knowledge is based on studies of girls. Boys with ADHD outnumber girls with ADHD at a ratio of approximately 3:1 in community samples, and often at a far higher ratio in clinical samples (1,2). Nonetheless, the vast predominance of male-dominated samples in the ADHD literature extends beyond these ratios. Several key samples comprising a large percentage of the literature on ADHD are, in fact, exclusively male, and most mixed-sex samples have too few girls for separate analysis of female manifestations and mechanisms. There has been a surge of research on girls with ADHD in the past decade (3-7), but the field’s predominant models still reflect what is known largely about males. Because ADHD is potentially underrecognized in girls and clearly underinvestigated in female populations, despite its significant impairments and influences on key life domains, investigation of ADHD in girls and women is a priority.
