Copeland Symptom List for Adult ADHD

A free sixty-three-question self-assessment for adults aged seventeen and over, mapping how ADHD symptoms may be affecting nine separate areas of daily life. It takes about ten minutes - the longest of our screeners, and the most detailed. Your answers are private and your report is sent to you by email.

Which of the three ADHD screeners to take

There are three on this site. They are not interchangeable, and the differences are worth two minutes before you spend ten.

The ASRS - the validated one

Developed by the World Health Organization with a Harvard research team, with published thresholds behind it. It answers one question: are my symptoms consistent with adult ADHD? Take this one if you only take one, and take it if you want a result a clinician will recognise.

This one - the detailed one

It asks a different question: not whether the symptoms are there, but what they are costing you, broken down across nine areas of life. Take it if the answer to the first question is already yes, or if you want something specific to bring to an assessment.

The Structured Adult ADHD Self Test - the short in-house one

Twenty-two questions in plainer language, with some reflective items the others do not include. Written in-house rather than validated. Useful for thinking with.

What makes this one different

Most ADHD screeners count symptoms. This one maps consequences.

That distinction matters because a diagnosis of ADHD does not rest on symptoms alone - it rests on symptoms causing real difficulty across more than one part of life. A person can tick every symptom box and still not meet criteria if nothing is being impaired. Equally, someone can score modestly on a symptom checklist while the impact on their work, their relationships and their sense of themselves is substantial.

This questionnaire is built to show that second picture, which is why it is the one most worth taking into an assessment appointment.

The nine areas

Inattention and distractibility - scored 0 to 21

Difficulty sustaining attention, losing the thread, drifting away from tasks, and the effort it takes to hold focus on something that is not intrinsically interesting.

Impulsivity - scored 0 to 24

Acting before the reasoning has finished - interrupting, deciding quickly, moving on impulse, and difficulty waiting.

Activity level: overactive - scored 0 to 18

Restlessness, fidgeting, inability to settle, and the sense of being driven by a motor that will not switch off. In adults this is usually felt internally rather than visible from outside.

Activity level: underactive - scored 0 to 18

The opposite pattern - low energy, slowness to get going, daydreaming, and a quiet, internal, drifting kind of inattention. This area is the reason the questionnaire is worth taking. Almost no other ADHD screener asks about it, and it is the presentation most often missed entirely - particularly in women and girls, who are far more likely to present this way and far less likely to be referred.

Noncompliance - scored 0 to 15

Difficulty with rules, instructions and expectations, particularly ones that seem arbitrary. See the note on language below - this area is worth reading with some care. If demands specifically are the difficulty, our demand avoidance screener looks at that directly.

Underachievement, disorganisation and learning - scored 0 to 33

The largest area, at eleven items. The gap between what you are capable of and what you have been able to deliver, plus organisation, planning and the mechanics of getting things finished.

Emotional difficulties - scored 0 to 27

Mood swings, frustration, irritability, low tolerance for stress, and the emotional cost of running a brain that keeps letting you down in ways other people do not see.

Peer relations - scored 0 to 15

Friendships and social connection - how easily they form, and how well they survive.

Family relations - scored 0 to 18

Conflict, misunderstanding and strain at home. Frequently the area where the cost is highest and least visible to anyone outside it.

A note on the language

This checklist was written in the early 1990s, and some of its category names show it. "Noncompliance", "underachievement" and "poor peer relations" describe a person from the outside, in terms of what they are failing to do for other people.

We have kept the original names so the areas correspond to the instrument, but they are worth translating as you read. Noncompliance is usually a nervous system meeting a demand it cannot meet, not defiance. Underachievement is the gap between capability and circumstance, not a verdict on effort. And difficulty in friendships is rarely a deficiency in the person - it is what happens when the way you communicate is not the way most people around you communicate.

The areas are useful. The framing belongs to its era.

How it is scored

Each of the nine areas is scored separately, and the total runs from 0 to 189 across four bands.

Minimal - 0 to 65

Little indication that these symptoms are interfering with daily life.

Mild to moderate - 66 to 93

Symptoms are present and creating some difficulty.

Moderate to severe - 94 to 131

Substantial interference across several areas.

Major interference - 132 to 189

Symptoms are affecting most areas of daily functioning significantly.

The nine area scores matter more than the total. A pattern concentrated in underachievement and emotional difficulties describes something quite different from one concentrated in family and peer relations, and the two call for different conversations - even at the same overall score.

About this questionnaire

The Copeland Symptom Checklist was developed by Edna Copeland and has been in clinical use for decades. It is a well-established checklist rather than a psychometrically validated scale in the sense that the ASRS is - its band thresholds come from clinical convention rather than from published validation data. Read your result as a detailed map of where difficulty sits, not as a measurement against a research norm.

What can look like ADHD here but is not

• Autistic burnout. Executive function collapse, difficulty starting things, emotional volatility and withdrawal from relationships will elevate several of these areas at once. If you are currently depleted, the burnout screener is worth taking first.
• Monotropic attention. Difficulty switching and losing everything outside the current channel produces similar answers by a different mechanism. The monotropism questionnaire looks at that directly.
• Autism itself. Several of these areas - peer relations, family strain, emotional difficulty, noncompliance - are elevated by autistic experience independently of ADHD, which is one reason the two are so often confused and so often both present.
• Anxiety, depression, poor sleep, and thyroid or hormonal change, all of which impair attention and mood.

What this screener is not

This screening tool is for information and self-reflection only. It is not a diagnostic instrument and does not replace professional medical or psychological evaluation. It does not provide a formal ADHD diagnosis and it is not a route to medication.

What happens after you finish

You receive your total, all nine area scores and a report by email. Nothing is shared with anyone unless you ask us to send it somewhere. If you would like to talk the result through, you can tell us at the end and we will follow up.

If you want a formal assessment

We provide adult ADHD assessment, autism assessment, and dual assessment for both. Autism and ADHD co-occur often enough that if either question is open, the dual assessment is usually the better choice. There are also add-on evaluations for alexithymia and demand avoidance.

If what you need is documentation rather than a diagnosis, our page on neuroaffirming accommodations explains that process. You can also meet the clinicians, read our frequently asked questions, or browse the rest of our free tools on the self-discovery page.

About Adult Autism Assessment

We assess and support neurodivergent adults - people seeking a first diagnosis in adulthood, people who have known for years and want documentation, and people who are still working out what fits. Our approach is neurodiversity-affirming: an assessment here is about accurate self-understanding and practical accommodation, not about finding out what is wrong with you.

Adult Autism Assessment is part of New Path Family of Therapy Centers, Inc.