Attitudes of Primary School Teachers and Its Associated Factors Toward Students With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Debre Markos and Dejen Towns, Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough most instructors appear to understand visible disability, they appear to have a negative attitude toward children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), considering them to be lazy or purposefully disruptive. In Ethiopia, there is a scarcity of data on teachers’ attitudes toward children with ADHD.MethodsAn institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted. A pre-tested questionnaire that contains a case vignette was administered through face-to-face interview with 417 teachers. The data was entered into Epi-data version 4.2 and exported into SPSS version 25.0 for analysis. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to assess the correlates of attitude in the participants and a B coefficient with 95% confidence interval (CI) were used. The statistical significance was accepted at p-value < 0.05.ResultsThe mean score of the teachers’ attitude toward ADHD was 41.6 ± 5.4 (95% CI; 41.12, 42.16) and 46% of the participants had unfavorable attitudes. Low level of educational status, knowledge, teaching experience, familiarity in teaching students with ADHD, and having training were significantly associated with attitude of the teachers.ConclusionThe study revealed that nearly half of the participants had an unfavorable attitude toward students with ADHD. Based on the findings, it was recommended that it is better to strengthen training of teachers to recognize students with ADHD.

Tensions and contradictions: Exploring post‐primary teachers' perspectives and experiences of students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

“…These findings mirror previous research which reported that post-primary teachers viewed the behaviour of students with ADHD as disruptive (Krtek et al, 2022) and similar attitudes have also been reported among primary school teachers in Ireland (Ward, 2014) and internationally (Amha & Azale, 2022;Mahdi & Al-Juboori, 2021;Schatz et al, 2021). Perceptions that students with ADHD negatively impact teaching and learning, reduce the amount of time available for others, and thereby compromising everyone's ability to learn are also supported by earlier research among Canadian elementary teachers (Blotnicky-Gallant et al, 2015).…”

Primary School Teachers’ Perspectives on ADHD in Alkadrow, Khartoum, Sudan

“…However, the percentage of participants who had undergone such training was comparatively lower than a previous study conducted in Isfahan, where half of the participants had received training courses specifically focused on ADHD [7]. However, this finding was higher than studies conducted in Amhara where most participants did not have any workshops, training, or courses regarding ADHD [10]. This is similar to a study done in Ethiopia where 98.1% of participants had no ADHD-related training.…”

Accurately Assessing Teacher ADHD-Specific Attitudes Using the Scale for ADHD-Specific Attitudes

“…Only a handful of studies investigated the influence of other socio-demographic features on ADHD-specific attitudes. Results suggested that teaching students with ADHD diagnoses increased positive attitudes toward them ( Amha & Azale, 2022 ; Dessie et al, 2021 ), as did watching mass media as an information source about ADHD (Dessie et al). Furthermore, Cueli et al (2022) found that as teachers aged, their ADHD-specific attitudes became more negative, while having a close relationship with a student who had ADHD, having a relative with ADHD, or having ADHD themselves led to more positive opinions of their students with ADHD ( Flavian & Uziely, 2022 ).…”