INITIAL SOCIOMETRIC IMPRESSIONS OF ATTENTION-DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER AND COMPARISON BOYS - PREDICTIONS FROM SOCIAL BEHAVIORS AND FROM NONBEHAVIORAL VARIABLES

This study systematically compared the influence of naturalistic socia l behaviors and nonbehavioral variables on the development of peer sta tus in 49 previously unfamiliar boys, aged 6-12 years, who attended a summer research program. Twenty-five boys with attention-deficit hyper activity disorder (ADHD) and 24 comparison boys participated. Physical attractiveness, motor competence, intelligence, and academic achievem ent constituted the nonbehavioral variables; social behaviors included noncompliance, aggression, prosocial actions, and isolation, measured by live observations of classroom and playground interactions. As ear ly as the first day of interaction, ADHD and comparison boys displayed clear differences in social behaviors, and the ADHD youngsters were o verwhelmingly rejected. Whereas prosocial behavior independently predi cted friendship ratings during the first week, the magnitude of predic tion was small. In contrast, the boys' aggression (or noncompliance) s trongly predicted negative nominations, even with nonbehavioral factor s, group status (ADHD versus comparison), and other social behaviors c ontrolled statistically. Implications for understanding and remediatin g negative peer reputations are discussed.