Date of Graduation

Summer 8-1-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology (PsyD)

College/School

School of Nursing and Health Professions

Department

Psychology

Program

Clinical Psychology (PsyD)

First Advisor

Michelle J. Montagno, PsyD

Second Advisor

Ann Nguyen, PhD

Third Advisor

Laura Gramling, PhD

Abstract

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that significantly impacts cognitive and behavioral functions, leading challenges for individuals across the lifespan. While extensive research has been conducted to understand the connection between executive functioning (EF) and ADHD, research findings related to the contributing factors of bilingualism and sleep still remains inconsistent (Bialystok et al., 2017). Investigating the joint effect between bilingualism and sleep on EF among children and adolescents with ADHD may help further clarify the connection between EF, language, and sleep, and facilitate the development of interventions from the perspective of these protective factors. EF encompasses cognitive processes responsible for goal-directed behaviors, such as working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control. Inconsistent findings have emerged from research examining the bilingual advantage and sleep as protective factors for EF. Regarding bilingualism, most recent studies have predominantly concentrated on the relationship between language proficiency and EF (Bialystok et al., 2017; Koder et al., 2022; Mor et al., 2015; Goodrich et al., 2021), or on comparisons between ADHD populations and their neurotypical peers (Koder et al., 2022). In the case of sleep as a protective factor, current studies have presented varying results concerning both sleep quantity and quality (Beaugrand, 2023; Wilckens et al., 2015; Turnbull et al., 2012).

Given different developmental trajectory of EF among children and adolescents than adults, this study aims to specifically focus on children and adolescents with ADHD, comparing their EF with multiple factors, including language, sleep quantity, and sleep quality. By integrating these factors, the study provides a comprehensive investigation into the joint effects of language and sleep, potentially offering insights beneficial to ADHD interventions.

This study involved a quantitative archival data analysis, gathering patient data from San Francisco Neuropsychology PC. Participants were included children and adolescents aged 8 to 17 diagnosed with ADHD. Demographic, biopsychological, and neurocognitive data were compared to investigate whether bilingualism, sleep quality, and sleep quantity can act as protective factors for executive functions among those with ADHD and whether bilingualism and sleep have a combined effect. The findings of this study offered a new perspective by showing that bilingualism does not confer cognitive advantages in ADHD, and that while sleep quality was unrelated to executive functioning, longer sleep duration unexpectedly predicted poorer objective EF performance. TRANSLATE with x English Arabic Hebrew Polish Bulgarian Hindi Portuguese Catalan Hmong Daw Romanian Chinese Simplified Hungarian Russian Chinese Traditional Indonesian Slovak Czech Italian Slovenian Danish Japanese Spanish Dutch Klingon Swedish English Korean Thai Estonian Latvian Turkish Finnish Lithuanian Ukrainian French Malay Urdu German Maltese Vietnamese Greek Norwegian Welsh Haitian Creole Persian     TRANSLATE with COPY THE URL BELOW Back EMBED THE SNIPPET BELOW IN YOUR SITE Enable collaborative features and customize widget: Bing Webmaster Portal Back

Download

Share

COinS