The association between attention deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD) symptoms and self employment
Attention deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD) symptoms have been associated with the decision to become self employed. Although these symptoms are generally regarded as disadvantageous, there may also be a bright side. To our knowledge, however, there has been no systematic, epidemiological evidence to support this claim. This paper examines the association between ADHD symptoms and self employment in a population based sample from the STAGE cohort of the Swedish Twin Registry (N 7208) For replication, we used a sample of Dutch students who participated in the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (N 13,112) In the Swedish sample, we found a positive association with self employment for both general ADHD symptoms [odds ratio (OR) 1.13; 95 confidence intervals (CI) 1.04 1.23] and hyperactivity symptoms [OR 1.19; 95 CI 1.08 1.32] whereas no association was found for attention deficit symptoms [OR 0.99; 95 CI 0.89 1.10] The positive association between hyperactivity and self employment was replicated in the Dutch student sample [OR 1.09; 95 CI 1.03 1.15] Our results show that certain aspects of ADHD, in particular hyperactivity, can have a bright side, as they are positively associated with self employment.
European Journal of Epidemiology