Does Relative Age Effect Increase The Risk of Attention Deficit / Hyperactive Behaviour?

Abstract

The general aim of this research is to determine whether the relative age effect increases the risk of ADHD diagnosis. The data of the study consist of the date of birth and gender information of the 408 students who were diagnosed with ADHD during 2011-2016 at Karatay, Meram and Selçuklu Guidance and Research Centers in Konya. Students diagnosed with ADHD were categorized according to the annual quarters of their birthdays. Students diagnosed with ADHD were categorized by four groups according to the month of their births and Chi-Square Goodness of Fit Test was performed to determine whether there were significant deviations in the expected number of births in the groups. Frequency and percentage calculations were performed to determine the distribution of the genders of the students with ADHD diagnosis. As a result, all the birth months of the students with ADHD diagnosis showed a significant deviation from the expected value; no deviation was observed in females, while a significant deviation was observed in males, and the relative age effect increases the likelihood of having ADHD in males who were born in the second and third quarters of the year. In addition, the ratio of males diagnosed with ADHD is 2.16 times higher than females.