BEHAVIORAL COMPARISONS OF ACCEPTED AND REJECTED HYPERACTIVE CHILDREN AND THEIR MATCHED CONTROLS IN SOCIAL PLAY CONTEXTS (SOCIAL SKILLS, OBSERVATION, OVERLY ACTIVE)

AVI JAMSHED MADAN, Purdue University

Abstract

Hyperactive children evidence difficulty interacting with their peers and are at long term social risk. Prior studies of hyperactive children typically have not attempted to differentiate accepted from rejected hyperactive children. Such a distinction may be important because an appropriate training model for a rejected hyperactive child is another active child. Such reasoning is derived from the optimal sitimulation theory (Zentall, 1975), suggesting that activity level may be channeled but the level need is less alterable. The purpose of this investigation was thus to determine which behaviors characterized hyperactive children in social contexts, and which behaviors differentiated accepted from rejected hyperactive children in those contexts. A secondary purpose was to determine the effects of hyperactive children's behavior on controls. Subjects in this investigation were 25 hyperactive and 39 normal accepted children. Acceptance status was determined by sociometric scores on the play rating scale. There were 7 pairs of control-control children, 10 pairs of accepted hyperactive matched to normal controls, and 15 pairs of rejected hyperactive matched to normal controls. Dyads were observed during a block building task under two task conditions: structured instructions on specifically "what" to build versus less structured instructions. The results of a mixed design analysis of variance indicated that all children exhibited more positive behavior during the structured than the unstructured task condition. Hyperactive children (pooled across acceptance status) displayed less positive and more negative types of behavior than their controls. The specific behaviors that differentiated rejected from accepted hyperactive children were: asking more nontask related questions, more negative sharing, engaging more frequently in off-task related physical activities, and less positive physical contact. Other results indicated some carryover effects of the hyperactive children to the behavior of their paired normal controls. Controls paired with hyperactive children made fewer requests and positive statements towards their partners than when paired with other controls. In addition, they ignored verbal and nonverbal overtures made by their hyperactive partners. The control group paired with rejected hyperactive children displayed the lowest frequency of positive verbal and cooperative sharing behavior than the other two control group.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Special education

COinS