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Boys With ADHD in Social Interaction With a Nonfamiliar Adult: An Observational Study

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ABSTRACT

Objective

To clarify the nature of social interaction deficits in boys with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Method

Twenty Dutch hyperactive boys and 19 peer controls were observed using an ethological method during social interaction with a nonfamiliar adult (a student). Social behavior was operationalized in terms of the duration and frequency of visual and verbal behavior elements and scored during a conversation and a play segment.

Results

During the conversation segment, the boy with ADHD and the student were less socially involved in each other. During the play segment, boys with ADHD talked to themselves more and seemed to direct their attention to the student more than control boys did. The students praised the boys with ADHD more frequently and asked them more questions about their play activities than the control boys.

Conclusions

Boys with ADHD demonstrate poor social attention during conversation and elicit structure-providing behavior in nonfamiliar adults. It is postulated that poor self-regulatory mechanisms may mediate their social problems.

Section snippets

Subjects

Twenty boys with ADHD (mean age: 8 years and 10 months, range 7.1–12.3 years) and a control group of 19 boys (mean age: 9 years and 1 month, range 7.5–11.5 years) participated in the study. The boys with ADHD met the DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association, 1987) criteria for ADHD, had no comorbid diagnosis, and were not taking medication during the study. The diagnosis was based on interviews with parents and boys by a trained, experienced child and adolescent psychiatrist. The ADHD

RESULTS

N.B.: The maximum number of subjects who participated in the study was 20 boys with ADHD, 19 control boys, and 11 students. Because of missing data, some of the equations were made on fewer subjects. Table 1 shows durations and frequencies of behavior elements during the conversation segment, which could be best described as an interview, with the boys giving short answers to the students’ questions and the students asking new questions to keep the conversation going.

As can be seen from Table 1

DISCUSSION

The conversation started with the standard question: “How are things going at school?” It is possible that boys with ADHD and control boys reacted differently to the question, since boys with ADHD are likely to have difficulties in school. Indeed, in the conversation segment, boys with ADHD looked at the student less, even when they were talking to the student or the student was talking to them. However, this result is unlikely to be explained by the nature of the standard question, given the

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    From the Laboratory of Developmental and Experimental Clinical Psychology, Grote Kruisstraat, Groningen, the Netherlands.

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