title: Social Network Analysis Reveals the Negative Effects of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Symptoms on Friend-Based Student Networks.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Social network analysis has emerged as a promising tool in modern social psychology. This method can be used to examine friend-based social relationships in terms of network theory, with nodes representing individual students and ties representing relationships between students (e.g., friendships and kinships). Using social network analysis, we investigated whether greater severity of ADHD symptoms is correlated with weaker peer relationships among elementary school students.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 562 sixth-graders from two elementary schools (300 males) provided the names of their best friends (maximum 10 names). Their teachers rated each student's ADHD symptoms using an ADHD rating scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results showed that 10.2% of the students were at high risk for ADHD. Significant group differences were observed between the high-risk students and other students in two of the three network parameters (degree, centrality and closeness) used to assess friendship quality, with the high-risk group showing significantly lower values of degree and closeness compared to the other students. Moreover, negative correlations were found between the ADHD rating and two social network analysis parameters.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that the severity of ADHD symptoms is strongly correlated with the quality of social and interpersonal relationships in students with ADHD symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jun Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Bung-Nyun
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Johanna Inhyang
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Young Sik
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung Joon
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Min
authors.affiliation: Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun-Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Korea Institute on Neuromodulation, EasyBrain Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jaewon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012944:Social Support