Amori Yee Mikami

An Interaction-Based Approach to Enhancing Secondary School Instruction and Student Achievement

“Just the facts” is not enough. Improving teaching quality is widely recognized as critical to addressing deficiencies in secondary school education, yet the field has struggled to identify rigorously evaluated teacher-development approaches that can produce reliable gains in student achievement. A randomized controlled trial of My Teaching Partner–Secondary—a Web-mediated approach focused on improving teacher-student interactions in the classroom—examined the efficacy of the approach in improving teacher quality and student achievement with 78 secondary school teachers and 2237 students. The intervention produced substantial gains in measured student achievement in the year following its completion, equivalent to moving the average student from the 50th to the 59th percentile in achievement test scores. Gains appeared to be mediated by changes in teacher-student interaction qualities targeted by the intervention.

Eating Pathology among Adolescent Girls with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder

The authors investigated prospectively assessed eating pathology (body image dissatisfaction and bulimia nervosa symptoms) among an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of adolescent girls with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-combined type (ADHD-C; n=93), ADHD-inattentive type (ADHD-I; n=47), and a comparison group (n=88). The sample, initially ages 6-12 years, participated in a 5-year longitudinal study (92% retention rate). After statistical control of relevant covariates, girls with ADHD-C at baseline showed more eating pathology at follow-up than did comparison girls; girls with ADHD-I were intermediate between these two groups. Baseline impulsivity symptoms, as opposed to hyperactivity and inattention, best predicted adolescent eating pathology. With statistical control of ADHD, baseline peer rejection and parent- child relationship problems also predicted adolescent eating pathology. The association between punitive parenting in childhood and pathological eating behaviors in adolescence was stronger for girls with ADHD than for comparison girls. Results are discussed in terms of the expansion of longitudinal research on ADHD to include female-relevant domains of impairment, such as eating pathology.

Parental influence on children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: II. Results of a pilot intervention training parents as friendship coaches for children.

We report findings from a pilot intervention that trained parents to be “friendship coaches” for their children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Parents of 62 children with ADHD (ages 6–10; 68% male) were randomly assigned to receive the parental friendship coaching (PFC) intervention, or to be in a no-treatment control group. Families of 62 children without ADHD were included as normative comparisons. PFC was administered in eight, 90-minute sessions to parents; there was no child treatment component. Parents were taught to arrange a social context in which their children were optimally likely to develop good peer relationships. Receipt of PFC predicted improvements in children’s social skills and friendship quality on playdates as reported by parents, and peer acceptance and rejection as reported by teachers unaware of treatment status. PFC also predicted increases in observed parental facilitation and corrective feedback, and reductions in criticism during the child’s peer interaction, which mediated the improvements in children’s peer relationships. However, no effects for PFC were found on the number of playdates hosted or on teacher report of child social skills. Findings lend initial support to a treatment model that targets parental behaviors to address children’s peer problems.

The Importance of Friendship for Youth with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

It is well-established that youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are often peer-rejected and rated by parents, teachers, and observers to have poor social skills, when compared to typically developing peers. Significantly less research, however, has been devoted to the experiences youth with ADHD have in their close friendships. The aim of this article is to draw attention to friendship as a distinct construct from peer rejection and social skills and to summarize what is known about youth with ADHD in their friendships. The potential for stable, high-quality friendships to buffer the negative outcomes typically conferred by peer rejection in this population is discussed. This article concludes with recommendations for interventions that specifically target improving the close friendships of youth with ADHD as a treatment strategy.

A Randomized Trial of a Classroom Intervention to Increase Peers' Social Inclusion of Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

OBJECTIVE Interventions for peer problems among children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) typically focus on improving these childrens behaviors. This study tested the proposition that an adjunctive component encouraging the peer group to be socially inclusive of children with ADHD would augment the efficacy of traditional interventions. METHOD Two interventions were compared: contingency management training (COMET), a traditional behavioral management treatment to improve socially competent behavior in children with ADHD, and Making Socially Accepting Inclusive Classrooms (MOSAIC), a novel treatment that supplemented behavioral management for children with ADHD with procedures training peers to be socially inclusive. Children ages 6.8-9.8 (24 with ADHD; 113 typically developing [TD]) attended a summer day program grouped into same-age, same-sex classrooms with previously unacquainted peers. Children with ADHD received both COMET and MOSAIC with a repeated measures crossover design. TD children provided sociometric information about the children with ADHD. RESULTS Whereas the level of behavior problems displayed by children with ADHD did not differ across treatment conditions, children with ADHD displayed improved sociometric preference and more reciprocated friendships, and received more positive messages from peers, when they were in MOSAIC relative to COMET. However, the beneficial effects of MOSAIC over COMET predominantly occurred for boys relative to girls. CONCLUSIONS Data support the concept that adjunctive procedures to increase the inclusiveness of the peer group may ameliorate peer problems among children with ADHD, and suggest the potential utility of modifying MOSAIC to be delivered in regular classroom settings.

Can Executive Functions Explain the Relationship between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Social Adjustment

This study examined the ability of executive functions (EF) to account for the relationship between Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) status and social adjustment as indexed by parent and teacher report and by performance on a standardized observational “chat room” task. Children with the Combined subtype (ADHD-C; n = 23), the Primarily Inattentive Subtype (ADHD-I; n = 33), and non-ADHD controls (n = 36) participated. EF did not mediate the relationship between ADHD status and parent or teacher report of social adjustment. EF accounted for about 40–50% of the variance between ADHD status and the ability of children to detect subtle verbal cues as well as memory for the conversation in the chat room task, but did not mediate the relationship between ADHD and the number of prosocial, hostile, or on-topic statements that were made. Results are consistent with other recent reports, and suggest that the role of EF deficits in the production of social skill deficits in ADHD may not be as prominent as is typically assumed. The implications for the development of intervention programs designed to target core cognitive etiologic factors are discussed.

ADHD Subtype Differences in Motivational Responsivity but not Inhibitory Control: Evidence from a Reward-Based Variation of the Stop Signal Paradigm.

In this study we examined prepotent motor inhibition and responsiveness to reward using a variation of the stop signal reaction time (SSRT) task in clinic- and community-recruited children ages 7 to 12 with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder–inattentive type (ADHD–I), ADHD–combined type (ADHD–C), and non-ADHD controls. Contrary to theoretical expectations, we found evidence for inhibitory weaknesses in ADHD–I. We also found evidence that although children with ADHD–I were able to improve their inhibitory control given reward-based motivation, the improvement depended on the order of reward conditions. Results suggest that the 2 primary subtypes of ADHD share similar neuropsychological weaknesses in inhibitory control but that there are subtype differences in response to success and failure that contribute to a childs ultimate level of performance.

Parental influence on children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: I. Relationships between parent behaviors and child peer status.

We examined associations between children’s peer relationships and (a) their parents’ social competence as well as (b) their parents’ behaviors during the children’s peer interactions. Participants were families of 124 children ages 6–10 (68% male), 62 with ADHD and 62 age- and sex-matched comparison youth. Children’s peer relationships were assessed via parent and teacher report, and sociometric nominations in a lab-based playgroup. Parental characteristics were assessed via parent self-report and observations of behavior during their child’s playgroup. After statistical control of relevant covariates, parents of children with ADHD reported poorer social skills of their own, arranged fewer playdates for their children, and displayed more criticism during their child’s peer interaction than did parents of comparison youth. Parents’ socialization with other parents and facilitation of the child’s peer interactions predicted their children having good peer relationships as reported by teachers and peers, whereas parental corrective feedback to the child and praise predicted poor peer relationships. Parents’ ratings of their child’s social skills were positively associated with ratings of their own social skills, but negatively associated with criticism and facilitation of the child’s peer interactions. Relationships between parental behaviors and peer relationships were stronger for youth with ADHD than for comparison youth. The relevance of findings to interventions is discussed.

Positive Illusory Bias and Response to Behavioral Treatment Among Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

The current study investigates the accuracy of self-perceptions of competence among 43 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ages 6.9–11.9; 37 boys) attending an 8-week empirically supported behavioral summer treatment program. Having inflated self-perceptions about ones competence at the beginning of the summer predicted poorer response to the intervention administered in the program as assessed by changes in observed conduct problems, peer-nominated social preference, and friendship. However, inflated self-perceptions at the start of the summer predicted reductions in self-reported depressive symptoms during the treatment period. Despite participating in an intensive intervention, there was high stability of childrens biased self-perceptions regarding their performance.

The Pivotal Role of Adolescent Autonomy in Secondary School Classrooms

Student engagement is an important contributor to school success, yet high school students routinely describe themselves as disengaged. Identifying factors that alter (increase) engagement is a key aspect of improving support for student achievement. This study investigated students’ perceptions of autonomy, teacher connection, and academic competence as predictors of changes in student engagement within the classroom from the start to the end of a course. Participants were 578 (58% female) diverse (67.8% White, 25.2% African American, 5.1% Hispanic, 1.2% Asian American) high school students from 34 classrooms who provided questionnaire data both at the start and the end of a single course. Novel results from a cross-lagged model demonstrated that students who perceived their classrooms as allowing and encouraging their own autonomy in the first few weeks increased their engagement throughout the course, rather than the typical decline in engagement that was demonstrated by students in other classrooms. This finding is unique in that it extended to both students’ perceptions of engagement and observations of student engagement, suggesting a fairly robust pattern. The pertinence of this finding to adolescent developmental needs and its relationship to educational practice is discussed.