Children’s Attitudes towards Peers with ADHD: The Effect of a Biological Explanation

Attribution theory suggests that the degree to which we perceive others’ to be responsible for their behaviour, influences our affective responses towards these individuals, as well as our behavioural intentions. Research suggests that children with psychological problems tend to be actively rejected or excluded from the peer group. The current study aims to examine the effect of causal information on children’s attitudes towards peers with ADHD. A cross sectional design with two age groups of children(8/9 & 11/12 years) was utilised. Two hundred and ten children took part in total. All children read two vignettes: one depicting a child with ADHD, and a comparative condition describing a child with academic ability & no psychological difficulties. Children were randomly allocated to one of three versions of the ADHD vignette (no causal information; biological aetiology; clarification of factors not implicated in aetiology). Following each vignette, children completed two attitude measurement scales designed to assess their beliefs / feelings and behavioural intentions towards the target character in the vignette: the adjective checklist and the shared activity questionnaire. Using analysis of variance, results will focus on the effect of causal information on each of the dependent variables.