Stone, Susan, Brown, Timothy, & Hinshaw, Stephen
Researchers: Stephen HinshawSusan StoneTimothy Brown
University Affiliation: UC Berkeley
Email: sistone@berkeley.edu
Research Question:
Examines variation in ADHD compositional effects as a function of key school factors on reading achievement, mathematics achievement, and teacher-reported levels of externalizing behavior.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Teacher College Record
Journal Entry: Vol. 112, No. 5, pp. 1275-1299
Year: 2010
Findings:
- ADHD clustering effects predict lower reading achievement scores in schools as compared with schools without this characteristic, but comparable levels of mathematics achievement and externalizing symptoms. These ADHD-related school effects were larger in schools serving minority students, schools with higher retention rates, and schools with a strong emphasis on order. For both, children and schools, the pattering of ADHD-related effects differed by region.
- School-level fixed effects analyses indicated that ADHD compositional effects were independently and positively associated with the minority composition of the student body, school retention rates, and school emphasis on order, but were negatively associated with misbehavior and the extent of free or reduced lunch participation among the student body.
- Student level results showed negative associations between the within-school proportions of students with ADHD and reading achieving, but neither mathematics nor levels of externalizing symptoms showed associations.
- There is a positive association between schools with higher minority enrollment and the density of diagnosed children.
- Finding potentially provide a supplementary perspective on larger school resegregation trends – by race and poverty- in American schools and the associtaions of these trends with various inequalities in student learning opportunities. Findings may signal aggregate disparities in access to appropriate treatments for affected children.
- There are likely to be critical overlaps between school sociodemographic composition, aggregate child psychosocial vulnerabilities, disparities in access to health and/or mental health treatments, and a school’s capacity to provide appropriate educational supports.