SAGE Journal Articles

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Article 1: Family Environment in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity, Oppositional Defiant and Conduct Disorders

Abstract: Objective: This study aims to ascertain whether there were differences in family environment among patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder.

Method: The records of 233 patients, selected for high or low scores on a scale that taps ADHD symptoms, were reviewed by three clinicians who made DSM-IV diagnoses and rated the family environment with the Global Family Environment Scale (GFES). Self-report data obtained from the parent and child versions of the Child Behaviour Checklist were also used. The quality of the family environment was then compared between the various diagnostic groups.

Results: A poorer family environment was associated with conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder and predicted a worse outcome (e.g. admission to a non-psychiatric institution, drug and alcohol abuse). Quality of the family environment did not vary according to ADHD diagnosis or gender.

Conclusions: There seems to be no association between the quality of the family environment and a diagnosis of ADHD among referred adolescents. However, there is an association with conduct disorder. Interventions that improve family environment in the early years of life may prevent the development of conduct problems.

Questions to Consider:

  1. What information on the Gal Family Environment Scale is important for evaluating children’s functioning?
  2. What role does family environment play in the development of disruptive behavior disorders?
  3. Why do the methodological shortcomings in this study limit generalizability of the results?
     

Article 2: Teachers’ interpersonal style and its relationship to emotions, causal attributions, and type of challenging behaviors displayed by students with intellectual disabilities

Abstract: Teachers’ interpersonal style is a new field of research in the study of students with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviors in school context. In the present study, we investigate emotions and causal attributions of three basic types of challenging behaviors: aggression, stereotypy, and self-injury, in relation to teachers’ interpersonal style. One hundred and seventy seven Greek general and special educator teachers participated in the study by completing a three-scaled questionnaire. Statistical analysis revealed that the type of challenging behaviors affected causal attributions. According to regression analysis, emotions, teaching experience, expertise in special education, and gender explained a significant amount of variance in interpersonal style. Emotions were found to have a mediating role in the relationship between causal attributions and interpersonal style of “willingness to support,” when challenging behaviors were attributed to stable causes or causes under the control of the individual with intellectual disabilities.

Questions to Consider:

  1. How well does Leary’s Interpersonal Theory apply to the classroom situation in this study?
  2. Why do you suppose positive emotions led to teacher willingness to support students even when teachers made stable causal attributions, in direct contradiction of Wiener’s theory?
  3. Explain how the limitations of the research methodology may have impacted the study’s results.