Effects of Labeling and ADHD Behaviors on Peer and Teacher Judgments

The ADHD label, analogue methodology, and participants' geographic location on judgments of social and attentional skills

“…It appears that when the stereotypical behaviors associated with ADHD were seen versus presented in a vignette, the participants' ratings on the Social Problems scale were more negative. These findings are consistent with Cornett-Ruiz and Hendricks (1993) who demonstrated that primary education teachers' first impressions of a child presented in a video displaying ADHD behavior were more negative than those who saw a child displaying normal behavior. Results of the study also indicated that the significant main effect of high school location on the social problems variable suggest that the background of the participant is an important factor to consider in analyzing judgments of others.…”

“…The results showed no differences in the subjects' responses whether the label preceded or followed the observation of the behavior. Finally, Cornett-Ruiz and Hendricks (1993) found that when teachers and children viewed a videotape of a child displaying stereotypical ADHD behaviors they reported more negative first impressions, made more negative predictions, and evaluated the essays of the child more critically than the participants who saw the video of the child exhibiting normal behavior.…”

Cultural variations in mothers’ attributions: influence of child attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

“…These findings suggest that the impact of ADHD labeling on mothers' attributions may not be as negative as previously suggested [10,11]. Rather, results appear to be more consistent with the idea that the diagnosis of ADHD may create lower expectations for behavior, leading to less critical evaluation [12,32]. In fact, there may be a positive impact of labeling, in which not only do mothers appear to be less critical of the problem behaviors of a child with ADHD, they are not pessimistic about the prosocial behaviors of the child.…”

“…Koonce et al [11] also found that teachers made more negative judgments about children's social and attentional skills when the children were labeled with ADHD in comparison to a nonlabeled condition. Interestingly, Cornett-Ruiz and Hendricks [12] found that when children displayed symptoms of ADHD, students and teachers had more negative first impressions of them and made more negative predictions for their future compared to when children did not display ADHD behaviors. However, the use of the ADHD diagnosis by itself had no effect on the ratings of the teachers and peers, with one exception: peers were less critical in evaluating an essay written by the child with the ADHD label.…”

Board # 156 : Experiences of Pre-College Teachers Working with Undergraduate Engineering Students with ADHD in Research Laboratories

“…Nearly twenty years ago, Felder and Silverman recognized the disconnect between teaching styles and learning styles in engineering at the college level 11 . Negative stereotypes toward neurodiverse learners abound within both academic and social frameworks 12,13 . Moving to a strength based definition of neurodiverse learners will require a fundamental and necessary shift in our ability to attract and retain those uniquely abled, neurodiverse idea generators and problems solvers who are innately best suited to effecting change and progress in engineering.…”