Black kids, girls are less likely than white boys to receive proper treatment
Research has shown that African-American children and girls of any race with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are less likely than white boys to get proper medical attention for their problem, but the reasons why are poorly understood. University of Florida researchers, though, are finding answers in a $2.6 million federal study.
Mirka Koro-Ljungberg, assistant professor of educational psychology at the College of Education, and Regina Bussing, professor of psychiatry at the College of Medicine, are in their second year of a five-year grant funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
After researchers screened a community sample of more than 1,600 families, parents of 266 students at high risk for ADHD subsequently participated in diagnostic interviews and focus groups and provided detailed accounts of help-seeking activities since they first became concerned about their children. Data collection will continue for three additional waves and include a community survey of treatment-intervention responses. Unaffected peers are also included in the study to compare their outcomes to the teens with ADHD.
The researchers so far have focused on the parents with elementary school children at high risk for ADHD. They discovered that parents’ perceptions of their child’s ADHD-related behavior may be influenced by their child’s gender and race. For example, black girls were often perceived as “misbehaving,” so they were disciplined, rather than given professional help, according to Koro-Ljungberg. Black boys, on the other hand, were considered “endangered” and parents took measures to protect them by using restrictions and behavioral modifications.
The researchers also found that many children, especially girls, stop taking their medication treatments soon after starting therapy.
Among childhood psychiatric disorders, ADHD has been a source of controversy. Some experts contend ADHD is overdiagnosed, but studies continue to show that many affected children remain untreated, according to UF researchers. ADHD afflicts 3 percent to 5 percent of school-age children, but it is treatable.
The ADHD study relied on both quantitative and qualitative research, or research using interviews and case examples, rather than merely collecting numeric data, to determine what interventions are seen and chosen as most appropriate by the parents and teens. Qualitative research, in many instances, can reveal what numbers and statistics can’t, according to Koro-Ljungberg.
The researchers are continuing data collection through personal interviews and telephone surveys and will start their fifth wave collection this November. The researchers will also hold focus groups of parents, at–risk youth and teachers to provide feedback and insights into how the children’s ADHD behavior was handled. The researchers ultimately will assess various professional guidelines and options for improving treatments for girls and African-American youth with ADHD.
Qualitative research has not typically been a research focus in educational psychology, but Koro-Ljungberg’s teaching and research are shifting the field, said Elizabeth St. Pierre, an associate professor in the University of Georgia’s language and literacy education department.
“Dr. Koro-Ljungberg is a pioneer in the introduction of qualitative research into educational psychology,” St. Pierre said. “Indeed her exemplary presence on the national scene is encouraging other educational psychologists to follow her lead in what many of us feel is an overdue opening up of the field.”
Writer
Chan Tran, ctran@ufl.edu, (352) 392-0726, ext. 246
