INFLUENCE OF LOUD BEHAVIORAL CONSEQUENCES ON ATTENTION-DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER

Students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), with ag gression (H/A) and without aggression (H), and their classmates withou t disability were observed during play before and after watching taped interactions between a normal peer and a child with H/A. In one of th e videotapes, the peer responded loudly to the aggressive behavior and in the other to the prosocial behavior of the child with H/A. The sub sequent effects of this observation were assessed in a randomized cont rol-group pretest-posttest design with three levels of group, H, H/A, and the contrast group, CG, and two levels of a video condition, loud 80 dB and normal 65 dB peer responses, to aggressive or to prosocial b ehavior. Prevideo group differences in activity were observed for the combined ADHD groups versus the CG, and for the H versus the H/A subgr oups in the duration and positive nature of play with neutral toys. Us ing prevideo data as a covariate, group by condition interactions were obtained in the solitary play setting in support of predictions. Boys with ADHD differed from the contrast group with more negative behavio r, and they played less with friendly toys only after observing a loud peer response to aggression. Overall implications were that loud reac tions to aggressive behavior increase aggression for mildly disordered students with ADHD, while decreasing aggression for the contrast grou p.