A study from the University of East Anglia reveals that girls from multilingual and immigrant families face considerable delays in being diagnosed with ADHD, highlighting the impact of language and cultural barriers on recognising symptoms and accessing support.
Girls from multilingual and immigrant families may be missing out on ADHD diagnosis and support, according to research from the University of East Anglia that suggests language and cultural barriers can slow recognition of symptoms. The findings add to long-standing concerns that ADHD is already under-recognised in girls, whose difficulties are often less outwardly disruptive than those more commonly noticed in boys.
The study, which analysed data from more than 70,000 children in Norway, linked parental reports of attention difficulties with diagnoses recorded in the country’s health system. Researchers found that multilingual children were more likely to be described by parents as having attention problems, yet they were no more likely than monolingual children to receive an ADHD diagnosis. Among girls, the gap was especially stark: those whose mothers spoke a language other than Norwegian were diagnosed almost two and a half years later than girls with Norwegian-speaking parents.
The delay was even greater in some families. According to the researchers, when the mother had a non-Norwegian language background, the gap between boys and girls widened to nearly five years. They also found lower diagnosis rates among children whose mothers came from North Africa, the Middle East, south-east Asia, East Asia and Oceania than among those with Norwegian-born mothers, pointing to the possibility that some children are being underdiagnosed.
Dr Maria Garraffa of UEA said the work raises concerns for the UK, where about 5.1 million people in England and Wales speak a main language other than English. She said that parents may be less familiar with ADHD, more worried about stigma or more likely to struggle with services and assessment tools not designed for every cultural group. The researchers argue that culturally sensitive approaches are needed so children are not left without support during key school years.
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