PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Freedman, Seth
AU  - Marquardt, Kelli
AU  - Salcedo, Dario
AU  - Simon, Kosali
AU  - Wing, Coady
TI  - Societal Disruptions and Childhood ADHD Diagnosis during the COVID-19 Pandemic
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.1222-12708R2
DP  - 2024 Apr 01
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - S187--S226
VI  - 59
IP  - S
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/59/S/S187.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/59/S/S187.full
AB  - We study how the societal disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted diagnosis of a prevalent childhood mental health condition, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Using both nationwide private health insurance claims and a single state’s comprehensive electronic health records, we compare children exposed to the pandemic to same-aged children prior to the pandemic. We find the pandemic reduced new ADHD diagnoses by 8.6 percent among boys and 11.0 percent among girls nationwide through February 2021. We further show that higher levels of in-person schooling in fall 2020 dampened the decline for girls but had no moderating effect for boys.