A Qualitative Investigation of ADHD Experiences and Identity Construction among young women in the UK.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent neurobehavioral conditions globally and is a key interest of medical sociology. Nonetheless, despite increased interest in female analyses, ADHD is a diagnosis marked by significant gender biases (McDonnell, 2022). Existing social research on female ADHD has examined rates of diagnosis (Bergey et al., 2022) and theories of medicalisation (Conrad and Slodden, 2013), but there is yet to be substantial work on how ADHD shapes women's identity construction. With little sociological inquiry into the narratives and biographies of ADHD women, we lack understanding of how women make sense of their ADHD diagnosis, experience, and identity. Taking anintersectional feminist standpoint, this study aims to address this gap in ADHD studies through situating self and identity theory within young women's experiences of ADHD, exploring the 'male-coding' of the condition, participants' meanings of femininity, and 'neurodivergence' as biographical reinforcement or disruption (Bury, 1991). This study will use mixed qualitative methods to investigate a sample of 50women in the UK between the ages of 18 and 25, who have been diagnosed with ADHD or have begun the diagnostic process. Utilising both biographical narrative interviews and two-week diaries, analysed through dialogical and thematic narrative
analysis, I aim to provide a holistic view of participant experiences, including the day-to-day navigation of ADHD, and identity construction over-time. Findings from this study lend themselves to inform gender-sensitive ADHD support in all sectors of society, as well as contributing new knowledge to feminist disability studies.