What aspects of peer relationships are impaired in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder?
Participants included 165 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; 130 boys, 35 girls) and their 1,298 same-sex classmates (1,026 boys, 272 girls) who served as raters. For each child with ADHD, a child of the same sex was randomly selected from the same classroom to serve as a comparison child, which yielded 165 dyads. Consistent with predictions, contrasted with the comparison children, those with ADHD were lower on social preference, higher on social impact, less well liked, and more often in the rejected social status category; they also had fewer dyadic friends. When liking ratings that children made versus received were examined, children with ADHD had less positive imbalance and greater negative imbalance relative to comparison children. Analyses that considered the types of peers who chose children with ADHD as friends or nonfriends demonstrated that children with ADHD were nominated as nonfriends by children of higher social preference and who were better liked by others.
Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2081, USA. blaze@psych.purdue.edu
Betsy
B
Hoza
Sylvie
S
Mrug
Alyson C
AC
Gerdes
Stephen P
SP
Hinshaw
William M
WM
Bukowski
Joel A
JA
Gold
Helena C
HC
Kraemer
William E
WE
Pelham
Timothy
T
Wigal
L Eugene
LE
Arnold
D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012919:Social Behavior; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D012963:Sociometric Techniques