Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS): Questions, Scoring and Meaning

The Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) is a questionnaire designed to screen for ADHD symptoms in adults. It asks about experiences such as difficulty finishing tasks, organizing activities, remembering obligations, getting started on demanding tasks, restlessness and impulsive behavior.

The most familiar version is the ASRS v1.1, developed in collaboration with the World Health Organization. There is an 18-question symptom checklist and a shorter six-question screener. Both can help identify whether someone’s current pattern of attention, organization, restlessness and impulsivity is consistent enough with ADHD to justify further assessment.

A positive ASRS result does not establish an ADHD diagnosis. Its main purpose is to identify a pattern worth investigating further.

What is the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale?

The ASRS is a self-report questionnaire for adults. Instead of asking whether you simply “have trouble concentrating,” it breaks ADHD-related difficulties into specific everyday experiences.

The questions broadly cover two areas:

🧠 Inattention and executive functioning — organization, remembering responsibilities, sustaining attention, completing tasks and getting started on mentally demanding activities
⚡ Hyperactivity and impulsivity — restlessness, difficulty staying still, feeling driven to remain active, talking excessively, interrupting and difficulty waiting

This reflects the two major groups of ADHD symptoms: inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity.

In adults, however, these characteristics can look quite different from stereotypical childhood ADHD. Hyperactivity may become persistent internal restlessness rather than obvious running or climbing, while inattention may appear as chronic difficulty managing tasks, time, priorities and everyday responsibilities.

ASRS 6 questions vs 18 questions

You may encounter two versions of the ASRS v1.1 online.

📋 The 6-question ASRS Screener

The short version contains six questions selected because they were particularly useful for identifying adults who might have ADHD.

It focuses on experiences involving:

✅ finishing tasks
🗂️ organization
📅 remembering obligations
⏳ starting demanding tasks
🦵 physical restlessness
⚡ feeling excessively active

It is designed to be quick screening, not a complete description of someone’s ADHD profile.

📝 The 18-question ASRS Symptom Checklist

The complete ASRS v1.1 contains 18 questions, corresponding broadly to the ADHD symptom criteria used when the scale was developed.

The first six questions form Part A. The remaining twelve questions form Part B and provide additional information about inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive experiences.

The official ASRS resources currently distinguish between the six-question screener and the full 18-question symptom checklist.

How do you answer the ASRS?

The ASRS asks how frequently particular experiences have occurred during the past six months.

Responses use five frequency categories:

⚪ Never
🟢 Rarely
🟡 Sometimes
🟠 Often
🔴 Very often

This is important because ADHD is not defined by occasionally forgetting something, becoming distracted or procrastinating. Almost everyone experiences those things sometimes.

The relevant pattern is frequency, persistence and impact.

For example, occasionally forgetting an appointment provides little information by itself. Regularly forgetting appointments, deadlines, bills and responsibilities despite repeatedly trying to create systems around them is a much more meaningful pattern.

How is the ASRS v1.1 scored?

There are different ways of scoring the six-question ASRS, which can make online explanations confusing.

The traditional clinical scoring method uses specific response thresholds for each of the six questions. On the original questionnaire these are shown as shaded boxes. Because the threshold differs between questions, it is not simply a matter of counting every “often” or “very often” response.

Under the traditional scoring method:

🔢 0–3 positive responses — below the usual screening threshold
🔢 4–6 positive responses — reaches the commonly used threshold for a positive ADHD screen

A positive screen indicates that further evaluation may be appropriate. The six-item screener was specifically developed to identify likely adult ADHD efficiently.

A newer ASRS v1.1 scoring method

The official ASRS site published an updated scoring recommendation in 2024 that can also be encountered in research and newer resources.

In this method, each of the six answers receives 0 to 4 points, creating a score between 0 and 24:

🟢 0–9: low negative range
🟡 10–13: high negative range
🟠 14–17: low positive range
🔴 18–24: high positive range

A score of 14 or higher is considered positive using this system. The ASRS team notes that this continuous scoring approach performs better for research and population estimates than the older 0–6 method.

If an online ASRS gives you a different-looking score from another version, the first thing to check is therefore which scoring system it uses.

What does a positive ASRS score mean?

A positive ASRS score means that your answers show a pattern of symptoms sufficiently consistent with adult ADHD to make ADHD worth investigating further.

It is more useful to examine the pattern behind the result than to focus exclusively on the score.

For example, the questionnaire may highlight recurring difficulties with:

🚀 Task initiation — knowing exactly what needs doing but repeatedly struggling to begin
🏁 Task completion — doing the interesting or difficult part but leaving final details unfinished
🗂️ Organization — difficulty sequencing, structuring or keeping track of complex tasks
📅 Working memory — appointments, obligations and intentions repeatedly disappearing from awareness
🎯 Attention regulation — difficulty sustaining attention when stimulation is low
🦵 Restlessness — needing movement or activity to remain regulated
⏳ Waiting — finding delays or inactivity unusually difficult
🗣️ Impulsivity — speaking, interrupting or acting before there has been enough time to inhibit the response

Several of these patterns occurring frequently and affecting everyday life provide much more useful information than a single isolated ADHD-like behavior.

What doesn’t the ASRS measure?

One limitation of any short questionnaire is that ADHD affects more than the behaviors captured by its score.

The ASRS does not directly tell you how severely ADHD affects:

💼 work
📚 education
🏠 household management
❤️ relationships
💰 finances
😴 sleep
🧠 emotional regulation
⏰ time management
🔋 everyday capacity

It also cannot determine why a particular difficulty occurs.

Someone may report severe procrastination, for example, but procrastination can arise from several mechanisms. ADHD-related task initiation problems are one possibility, while anxiety, depression, perfectionism, exhaustion and other factors can also contribute.

The behavior therefore needs to be understood within a larger pattern.

What can adult ADHD look like beyond the questionnaire?

Adult ADHD often becomes most visible not through one dramatic symptom but through the accumulated cost of regulating everyday life.

Someone may repeatedly experience combinations such as:

📱 opening the phone to complete one task and becoming absorbed in something unrelated
🧺 beginning several household tasks without completing any of them
⏰ consistently underestimating how long activities will take
💻 struggling to start routine work while becoming intensely focused on interesting work
🧠 losing an intention while moving from one room to another
📅 creating increasingly elaborate organizational systems that are difficult to maintain
🎧 needing stimulation to concentrate but becoming distracted when stimulation becomes excessive
⚡ feeling mentally or physically restless during low-stimulation activities

These patterns are more informative when they are persistent, occur across different settings and interfere with functioning.

Our ADHD Learning Hub explores these adult ADHD experiences in greater depth.

Can you score highly on the ASRS without having ADHD?

Yes. The ASRS measures ADHD-associated symptoms, but some of those symptoms can also occur in other situations.

For example:

😰 Anxiety can interfere with concentration and increase restlessness.
🌧️ Depression can reduce motivation, concentration and task initiation.
🔥 Burnout or chronic stress can reduce working memory and executive capacity.
😴 Sleep problems can substantially affect attention and impulse control.
♾️ Autism can involve executive functioning and attention-regulation differences that overlap with ADHD.
🧠 Other conditions or circumstances may also affect concentration, organization and activity levels.

This is why ADHD diagnosis looks beyond the questionnaire and asks whether the overall pattern fits ADHD better than alternative explanations.

ASRS and AuDHD

The ASRS can also be relevant for autistic adults wondering whether ADHD might be part of their profile.

Autism and ADHD are separate neurodevelopmental conditions, but they frequently occur together. Some characteristics can also look similar from the outside.

For example:

♾️ Autism: difficulty switching because the current activity or routine provides predictability.
⚡ ADHD: difficulty switching because attention has become strongly engaged.

♾️ Autism: repetitive movement may regulate sensory input.
⚡ ADHD: movement may help regulate restlessness or attention.

♾️ Autism: conversations may be difficult because of social-processing differences.
⚡ ADHD: conversations may be difficult because attention shifts or impulses are difficult to inhibit.

A person can also experience both mechanisms simultaneously.

A high ASRS score in an autistic adult can therefore provide a reason to investigate ADHD, but interpreting overlapping characteristics requires looking at the broader profile. See AuDHD vs ADHD vs Autism for a detailed comparison.

Can you have ADHD with a negative ASRS score?

Yes. A screening questionnaire is designed to identify likely cases efficiently, not to perfectly classify every individual.

A result can be influenced by:

🎭 Compensation — systems and routines may reduce how visible certain difficulties are
💼 Environment — highly structured circumstances may compensate for ADHD characteristics
🧠 Self-awareness — someone may underestimate patterns they have experienced for years
📋 Question interpretation — the available response categories may not perfectly describe someone’s experience
🔀 Individual profile — ADHD presentations differ considerably between adults

A negative screen makes ADHD less strongly indicated by that particular questionnaire, but it does not automatically rule it out when there is substantial developmental and functional evidence pointing in that direction.

Why childhood history matters

The ASRS asks mainly about recent adult symptoms, while an ADHD assessment also considers developmental history.

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition, so clinicians investigate whether relevant characteristics were already present during childhood. Adults may not have received a diagnosis at the time, particularly if they performed well academically, had strong external structure or did not fit common stereotypes of ADHD.

Useful childhood information might include:

📚 repeatedly forgetting school materials or assignments
🪟 becoming easily distracted during lessons
🗣️ talking or interrupting frequently
🦵 persistent fidgeting or restlessness
⏳ chronic difficulty starting homework
🎒 losing belongings repeatedly
🚀 completing work primarily under deadline pressure
🎯 showing very uneven attention depending on interest
📅 depending heavily on parents or teachers for organization

No single childhood behavior proves ADHD. Clinicians look for a persistent developmental pattern.

What does an adult ADHD assessment include?

A professional ADHD assessment is broader than completing the ASRS.

It generally considers:

👶 Developmental history — whether ADHD characteristics were present earlier in life
🧠 Current symptoms — patterns of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity
🏠 Different settings — whether difficulties occur across areas such as work, home, relationships or education
📉 Functional impact — how significantly those characteristics interfere with daily life
🩺 Other explanations — physical, psychological or neurodevelopmental factors that may produce similar difficulties
♾️ Co-occurring conditions — including autism, anxiety, depression and other conditions

NICE specifically states that ADHD should not be diagnosed solely from rating scales. Diagnosis should include clinical and psychosocial assessment, developmental and psychiatric history, and consideration of how symptoms occur across different settings.

For a broader overview, see Route to ADHD, Autism and AuDHD Assessment.

ASRS v1.1 vs ASRS-5

You may also encounter the ASRS-5.

These names refer to related but different instruments.

📋 ASRS v1.1 — the widely used original scale based on the earlier DSM-IV ADHD criteria
6️⃣ ASRS v1.1 Screener — six questions selected from the original scale
🆕 ASRS-5 — a newer six-question screener developed specifically around DSM-5 adult ADHD criteria

The ASRS-5 was developed because adult ADHD diagnostic criteria changed with DSM-5. It uses a different combination and weighting of questions, so its score should not be interpreted using ASRS v1.1 scoring rules.

The official ASRS resource page currently provides information about both the ASRS v1.1 and ASRS-5 instruments. Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale resources

What should you do with your ASRS result?

The most useful way to use an ASRS result is to combine the score with concrete examples from everyday life.

If the result suggests ADHD, consider documenting:

🧠 Attention — When is attention hardest to regulate, and when does it become unusually intense?
🚀 Starting — Which tasks are hardest to begin even when you intend to do them?
🏁 Finishing — What repeatedly gets started but not completed?
📅 Memory — Which appointments, responsibilities or intentions are easily lost?
⏰ Time — Do estimating, monitoring or planning time create recurring problems?
⚡ Restlessness — Is hyperactivity mainly physical, internal or both?
💼 Impact — How do these patterns affect work, relationships, finances or daily responsibilities?
👶 History — Can you identify similar patterns earlier in life?

That information is useful whether your next step is further self-education or a professional assessment.

The ASRS is therefore best viewed as a starting point for understanding an ADHD pattern, rather than a complete measure of what ADHD looks like in one individual.

Read next

⚡ ADHD Learning Hub — Explore adult ADHD, executive functioning, attention regulation and everyday life.

♾️ AuDHD vs ADHD vs Autism — Compare overlapping ADHD and autistic characteristics.

🧭 Route to ADHD, Autism and AuDHD Assessment — Learn what professional assessment can involve.

🔥 Neurodivergent Burnout — Understand how reduced capacity can sometimes intensify attention and executive functioning difficulties.

References

Kessler, R. C., Adler, L., Ames, M., et al. (2005). The World Health Organization Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS): A short screening scale for use in the general population. Psychological Medicine, 35, 245–256.

Adler, L. A., Spencer, T., Faraone, S. V., et al. (2006). Validity of pilot Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) to rate adult ADHD symptoms. Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 18, 145–148.

Ustun, B., Adler, L. A., Rudin, C., et al. (2017). The World Health Organization Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Self-Report Screening Scale for DSM-5. JAMA Psychiatry, 74, 520–526.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management (NG87).

National Comorbidity Survey. Adult ADHD Self-Report Scales (ASRS).