Behavioral and Family Correlates of ADHD Diagnosis Among Children in the U.S.: A Quantitative Analysis of the 2024 National Survey of Children’s Health

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition related to attention regulation, impulsivity, and daily functioning. Prior studies have focused on screen time, sleep, caregiver mental health, and socioeconomic status separately. However, only a few studies have compared these domains within one nationally weighted model. In this study, ADHD diagnosis was examined among children in the age from 6 to 17 using the 2024 National Survey of Children’s Health topical file. ADHD diagnosis was operationalized using K2Q31A, and a weighted linear probability model was estimated with SCREENTIME, A1_MENTHEALTH, HOURSLEEP, FPL_l1, SC_AGE_YEARS, and SC_SEX, and the selected child weight FWC was applied. A total of 35,798 children were included in the complete-case analytic sample, and a weighted ADHD diagnosis prevalence was 14.9%. Higher recreational screen time, worse caregiver mental health, shorter sleep duration, older age, and male sex were substantially associated with higher ADHD diagnosis probability. However, the family poverty-ratio measure was not statistically significant after adjustment. The model indicated modest explanatory power that both R2 and adjusted R2 were 0.029. These findings partially supported the hypothesis that stronger adjusted associations with ADHD diagnosis may be shown behavioral and caregiver well-being variables rather than with the selected socioeconomic measure. Since the NSCH is cross-sectional and caregiver-reported, the findings should not be interpreted as causal effects but as associations. Overall, this study offers a nationally grounded comparison of behavioral, family, socioeconomic, and demographic correlates of ADHD diagnosis among children in the U.S.