The overarching goal of this dissertation was to examine the self-perceptions of adolescents with ADHD with regard to their core ADHD symptoms and associated problem behaviors. Self-perceptions were examined in relation to awareness of problem behaviors (i.e., presence of a “positive illusory bias” or PIB), attributions, and stigma.
Study 1 examined the PIB in relation to the ignorance of incompetence hypothesis in 74 13-to-18 year old adolescents [40 ADHD; 34 Typically-Developing Comparison (TD)]. Compared to TD adolescents, adolescents with ADHD underestimated their ADHD symptoms and associated oppositional, academic, and social problems relative to parent raters, indicating that they have a PIB. Nevertheless, they were cognizant of their patterns of academic achievement and social problems. The only area in which adolescents with ADHD demonstrated limited awareness of their difficulties was for oppositional behaviors. Within the ADHD sample, adolescents with external locus of causality attributions had a higher PIB for oppositional behaviors than adolescents with ADHD with internal locus of causality attributions.
Using a cross-sectional design, Study 2 examined the PIB, attributions, and stigma perceptions in 66 14-to-18 year old adolescents (31 ADHD, 35 TD) and 107 9-to-12 year old children (65 ADHD, 42 TD); cognitive immaturity as a mechanism for the PIB and developmental differences in attribution patterns and stigmatization were the focus. Although both children and adolescents with ADHD demonstrated a PIB for their ADHD symptoms, the magnitude of the PIB was reduced in adolescence (particularly for hyperactivity-impulsivity). Both adolescents with and without ADHD showed a reduction in the PIB for inattentive symptoms relative to children. Participants with ADHD viewed their problem behaviors as more pervasive, uncontrollable, and stigmatizing than participants without ADHD, and adolescents viewed their behaviors as more pervasive, uncontrollable, and stigmatizing than children.
The findings offered theoretical support to the cognitive immaturity mechanism for the PIB and to Harters(2012) model of normative development of self-representations. Associations were found between the PIB and attributions. Minimal support was obtained for the ignorance of incompetence hypothesis in most domains. Future research directions and clinical implications are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/43745 |
| Date | 14 January 2014 |
| Creators | Varma, Angela |
| Contributors | Wiener, Judith |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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