(PS6-93) The School Experiences of Children with ADHD Symptoms: What Teacher Characteristics Relate to Classroom Social Experiences for At-risk Children?

Background: Many children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms have poor relationships with teachers and classmates. Though child behavior contributes to these difficulties, classroom social environments may also be shaped by teachers. This study tested the hypothesis that greater teacher discipline-related stress and internal/controllable attributions for ADHD (beliefs that children are responsible for their ADHD) would relate to poor student-teacher relationships, peer relationships, and interpersonal skills of children with ADHD symptoms. 

Method: Participants were 31 teachers (87% White; 94% women) and 112 students in their classrooms (Grades K-5; M_Age= 7.42; 52% White; 79% boys) with elevated ADHD symptoms and peer problems. Teachers completed the Teacher Attributions Measure (internal/controllable subscale) before the year started and the Teacher Stress Inventory (discipline/motivation subscale) 1 month into the year. Student-teacher relationships (child-reported Classroom Life Measure [CLM]; teacher-reported Student-Teacher Relationship Scale), peer relationships (sociometric preference; child-reported Social Experiences Questionnaire; CLM), and interpersonal skills (teacher-reported Academic Competence Evaluation Scale - Short Form, interpersonal subscale) were measured at the school year’s start and end. Eight Hierarchical Linear Modeling analyses were run, one per outcome variable. Teacher attributions and stress were entered together as predictors. Year-end social experiences measures were entered as outcomes after controlling for start-of-year scores and child oppositional behavior.

Results: Teachers attributing ADHD to internal/controllable causes related to more end-of-year child-reported instances of peer victimization (β = -0.18; p = .02) and better teacher-reported interpersonal skills (β = -0.27; p = .02), but were not associated with other outcomes (all p > .05). Teacher stress was not associated with any outcomes (all p > .05). 

Discussion: Teacher attributions, more so than stress, may relate to classroom social experiences. Perhaps attributions are stable through time, and thus more likely to impact children over a school year, while stress has situational fluctuations. Teacher perceptions of ADHD symptoms as internal/controllable related to both more child-reported peer victimization and better teacher-reported interpersonal skills. Post hoc, this may reflect a finding in the stigma literature (Lebowitz, 2016) that internal/controllable attributions for ADHD are a double-edged sword, in that they increase blame on people with ADHD for their condition, while also increasing beliefs in the competence of those with ADHD (they do have the skill to behave differently, they choose not to). In our study, teacher internal/controllable attributions may communicate to peers that children with ADHD are blameworthy and deserve harsher treatment (encouraging peer victimization). Yet, because these same attributions may reflect teacher beliefs that children can change ADHD symptoms, they may also result in teacher perceptions of these children as more capable, and encourage the teacher to help them develop interpersonal skills over the year.