T’Yana Blackburn
Psy 492 UC, Advanced General Psychology
February 27th, 2012
-Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
-To be diagnosed should have at least six attention or six activity/impulsivity symptoms for at least six months in at least two observable different settings
-Symptoms must cause severe difficulties in everyday tasks
This disorder crosses all cultural, social and racial lines
-Gavvn is a six year old African American male
-Gavvn can be hyper and inattentive at times
-Gavvn was diagnosed by his teacher with ADHD according to the ARS (ADHD Rating Scale)
Gavvn’s mother had him tested with his pediatrician and the school psychologist
-Gavvn had been misdiagnosed by his teacher due to not wanting to deal with behavioral issues that were a result of a learning disability
-Behavioral issues in class
-Low socio-economical background
-Cultural differences in perceptions of children’s behaviors
-Clinician’s not understanding the dynamics involved in the assessment and diagnosis
-Preconceived bias
-Psycho-tropic Medication
-Behavior Modification
-Therapy
-Biofeedback
-Change in diet
-Structured environment
-Biological disorder
-Parents are generally the most accurate diagnosticians
-Young African American males are often misdiagnosed
-Other possible causes are not ruled out , a premature diagnosis is given
-Various treatments include medication, behavior modification, structured environment, therapy and change in diet
STRUCTURAL DIAGNOSTIC REVIEW
UNSTRUCTURED CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS
-To assess DSM IV diagnostic status of ADHD
-The computerized interview schedule for children was administered to the parents
-Closed ended questions related to specific behaviors (such as presence and duration of psychiatric symptoms
-Observations were conducted by 1 of 27 clinicians & trainees from a variety of disciplines
-Children were observed for 48.03 minutes
-Clinician rated the degree of both inattentive and hyperactive impulsive behaviors on a 5-point scale (1=low to 5=high)
Clinician provided a yes or no rating of their perception of whether the child’s inattentive/hyperactive impulsive behaviors were excessive for the child’s development
-African American males lead all other race and gender groups with learning disorders
-In 2006 in the United States 4.5 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 years of age had been diagnosed with ADHD
-African American male youths have a disproportionately high rate of ADHD with an estimated prevalence rate of 5.56% compared to Caucasian males at 4.33%
-Overrepresented in specific learning disabilities (18%)
-Emotional disturbances (28%)
-Inaccurate assessment and diagnosis for African American, cultural differences in perceptions of children’s behavior
-Replication modification- The Guilford Model- a collaborative approach following clear assessment protocols that might help reduce the misdiagnosis in African American males during the assessment
-Diagnostic issues involving African American adolescent males
-It’s either ADHD or Conduct Disorder -ADHD is attributed to the central
nervous system dysfunctions -Conduct Disorder is attributed largely to
social maladjustment -African American males who exhibit
ADHD symptoms characterized by a lack of impulse control are given an informal diagnosis of Conduct Disorder
-Clinicians’ personal perceptions and prejudices, unclear understanding of the DSM-IV criteria for diagnosing ADHD can result in misdiagnosis in African American males
-Stereotype, racism, prejudice and sexism are a few variables that impact clinical diagnoses
Through this explanatory study, (3) significant reasons that contribute to the misdiagnosis of African American males
1) schools do not have a significant number of African Americans in teaching positions
2)schools favor homogeneous or ability grouping over heterogeneous grouping
3)schools that do not support a curriculum that promotes multicultural awareness and sensitivity
-Empirical Study -3,998 elementary students
(ages 5-11) -2,124 African American
students -1,874 Caucasian students -The IOWA rating scale was
used to evaluate for ADHD -Results proved that African
American boys and girls received significantly higher scores than the Caucasian students
There was a significantly greater likelihood for African American males and females
To be rated 2+ standard deviations above the mean for inattention-over activity, aggression, or IOWA Connors Rating scale scores
-Exploratory Case Study on African American males between the ages of 6-12 years of age
-Sample population from 4 different low socio-economic communities
-100 students total with current ADHD diagnoses (25 students per school)
-Information regarding study will be sent home for the parent/guardian to review and sign an informed consent form for their child to participate in the study
-Face to face interviews at the participant’s home will be conducted to perform the assessment
-The parent/guardian will be administered a survey to rate the participants behavior (inattentive and hyperactive symptoms)
-A behavioral survey would have been completed from the participants teacher of at least 6months prior to this study
-Based on the research (previous diagnosis, current assessment, behavioral survey from teacher, parent/guardian) the results will determine if the participant had in fact been diagnosed accurately for ADHD
- Findings will suggest that at least 2 out of every 5 African American males will be misdiagnosed with ADHD due to preconceived, bias and prejudice perceptions about young African American males
-Understanding of what ADHD is and what it looks like
-Understand that all cultures are different
-Research other possibilities
-Remove all prejudices, preconceived ideas, biases, stereotypes, labels and prejudgments
-Be objective not subjective
-Diagnose according to the DSM-IV criteria for ADHD
-Do No Harm
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Spencer, L. E., & Terry, O. (1999). Conduct Disorder vs. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Diagnostic Implications For African-American Adolescent Males , 5.
Tucker, C., & Dixon, A. (2009). Low-income African American Male Youth with ADHD Symptoms in the United States , 13.
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