This thesis was designed to investigate differences in aggression between girls with and
without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Forty girls with ADHD and 43 girls
without ADHD aged 9- to 12- years and their mothers and teachers participated. A multiassessment
methodology was used to investigate these differences, employing mothers' reports,
teachers' reports, and a laboratory aggression analogue task (a computer game involving
simulated girls in other rooms). The results indicated that mothers and teachers saw girls with
ADHD as having much higher levels of all types of aggression assessed, including overt,
relational, proactive, and reactive aggression, than girls in the control group. On the lab task,
girls with ADHD used a strategy that involved more threatening and bragging comments, and
social exclusions of their co-players. Expected differences on some of the lab task measures did
not emerge. Also, according to mothers, teachers, and the results from the lab task, girls with
ADHD were significantly less prosocial than girls in the control group. Where significant group
differences had been found, follow-up tests generally indicated that girls with ADHD and
comorbid oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) were more aggressive than girls in the control
group, with girls with ADHD but not ODD falling in between. In sum, these results indicate
substantial cause for concern for the concurrent and future psychosocial well-being of girls with
ADHD.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/13474 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Ohan, Jeneva Lee |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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