Date of Award

1997

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

This study investigated self-efficacy as described in Bandura's social learning theory and how it applies among boys with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The Student Self-Concept Scale (SSCS) (Gresham, Elliott, & Evans-Rernandez, 1993) was administered to assess the degree to which boys with ADHD differed from a standardized national sample of boys with respect to self-efficacy as outlined in Bandura's social learning theory. In addition, self-efficacy of third to sixth grade boys with ADHD and seventh to twelfth grade boys with ADHD was compared to determine whether self-efficacy differed in the two age groups, and the direction of the difference. Subjects were 40 boys with ADHD. Twenty boys in the 3rd to 6th grade, and twenty boys in the 7th to 12th grade received a full ADHD assessment battery at a Midwestern university center and were diagnosed with ADHD according to DSM-IV criteria. Several significant differences on multivariate analysis of variances were found between the two ADHD groups in the SSCS constructs. Social importance, social self-confidence and self-image self-confidence was significantly lower among adolescent boys with ADHD than pre-adolescent boys with ADHD. In addition, two-tailed single sample t-tests revealed that pre-adolescent boys with ADHD significantly differed from the normed group on these same constructs. Specifically, pre-adolescent boys with ADHD had higher self-confidence in their self-image and their social abilities and felt that socialization was more important than adolescent boys with ADHD and more than the normed group. Furthermore, pre-adolescent boys with ADHD differed significantly from the normed group in self-image importance and academic importance. Pre-adolescent boys had strong overall self-confidence in their abilities and felt that socialization and academics were critically important when compared to adolescent boys with ADHD and the normed group. Implications for further extension of Bandura's social learning theory to children with ADHD are discussed.

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