ADHD and Social Distancing

As I’ve discussed in previous blogs, ADHD children and adults have difficulty recognizing social cues or regulating impulse control and therefore frequently cannot maintain friendships or adapt well socially.

A recent study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, (48, 50-67) examines the other side of this issue; it examines the attitudes of adults toward persons with depression or AD/HD. The study indicates that many adults would personally prefer not to interact or have their child not interact (social distancing) with an AD/HD child. The study also reveals factors that contribute to the desire for social distancing. Participants in the study consisted of 1393 adults from across the US.

Participants were read a randomly selected vignette that provided a brief behavioral description of 1 of 4 different children. While no diagnoses were provided, the vignettes depicted behaviors characteristic of a child with a medical condition (asthma), a child with depression, a child with ADHD, and a child that presented what the authors described as “normal troubles.”

After listening to the vignette, researchers asked a series of questions to learn about the participants’ thoughts and emotions regarding the child depicted in the vignette. To more deeply delve into the reasoning behind social distancing, the researchers also examined participants’ beliefs about the suspected causes of behavior displayed by the child in the vignette. These included whether the participants believed the child had a mental illness, “bad character”, or “chemical imbalance in the brain.” Participants were also queried whether they believed the child depicted was a danger to self or others.

CONCLUSIONS

Interestingly, percentages of adults who were more likely to not engage with a child or child’s family, if that family was described as having symptoms characteristic of AD/HD or depression, were 2-3 times higher than when a child with “normal troubles” or asthma was depicted.

Some clear trends were also established: male participants were more likely to desire distance than females and older children desired distancing more frequently than younger (8 yrs.) children.

Furthermore, preference for distance increased if participants believed that the depicted child’s problems were caused by poor parental discipline.

When participants believed the depicted child’s problems were caused naturally, e.g. from food allergies or “normal ups and downs” their preference for distance decreased.

Attributing the child’s problems to a mental illness increased the preference for distance. Related to this, believing that the child posed a danger to himself or to others increased the preference for distance.

SUMMARY

The researchers cite that “… a substantial minority of American adults are reluctant to interact, or to have their children interact, with children described in ways consistent with ADHD and depression. Specifically, about 1 in 5 adults was unwilling to have these children living next door, in his or her child’s class, or as his or her child’s friend.”

It is a myth that poor parenting causes AD/HD. However it is evident that social distancing is desired if parents deem the offending child’s behavior to be caused by poor parenting.

By middle school, I would suggest a majority of AD/HD children feel socially outcast. Social acceptance of AD/HD children by their peers may be influenced by the parental attitudes either explicitly conveyed or indirectly communicated. Regardless, it’s evident that despite continued public education, barriers toward social acceptance exist albeit on a minor scale as about 4 out of 5 adults did not report these biases.

I think the greatly varying attitudes toward AD/HD reflect a general confusion regarding the subject. It’s regarded a brain disorder, not as a learning disability which is where I would prefer to see it. The brain disorder lends a certain stigma to AD/HD which is unfortunate. If it were considered a simple lack of certain skills (which is what it actually is) then not only could it be better understood by the general populace, but it would force the medical community to broaden their utterly narrow perspective on treatment benefiting all concerned.

Kids with mental illness often rejected socially

March 19, 2007

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Research suggests that a “substantial minority” of American adults are reluctant to let their children interact with children who suffer from depression or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

About one out of five parents would not want these children as neighbors, in their child’s classroom, or as their child’s friend, report Jack K. Martin and colleagues from Indiana University in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Older children and boys with mental conditions are most likely to be rejected.

This troubling pattern, the investigators report, appears to result from perceptions that a mentally ill child may be “dangerous.”

“If, as it seems, the ‘mental illness’ of either children or adults signals danger to the public, this barrier must be addressed by future political, legal, and research agendas,” according to Martin and colleagues.

The research stems from interviews with more than 1,100 adults as part of the General Social Survey administered by the National Opinion Research Center. The interviewees were given descriptions of children of various ages with asthma, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression or “normal” ups and downs of childhood.

Levels of rejection for children with depression and ADHD were two to three times higher than those reported for children with asthma or “normal” childhood troubles.

The results showed that almost 30 percent of parents said they would not like their child to become friends with a child who was depressed and more than 18 percent wouldn’t want to live next door to a family with a depressed child.

Roughly 23 percent of parents said they preferred that their child not make friends with a child with behaviors consistent with ADHD and 22 percent wouldn’t want to live next door to a family with a child with ADHD.

“In line with the 1999 Surgeon General’s report on mental illness, our analyses point to continuing barriers to public acceptance,” note the report’s authors. “While not as significant an obstacle as the rejection of adults, social distance does reflect stigma surrounding children’s mental health problems.”

They hope a greater understanding of the roots of this stigma will lead to effective efforts to confront the persistent lack of social acceptance of the mentally ill.

SOURCE: Journal of Health and Social Behavior, March 2007.

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