Citation

Abikoff HB, Courtney M, Pelham WE, Koplewicz HS. J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 1993; 21(5): 519-533.

Affiliation

Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Schneider Children's Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, New Hyde Park, New York 11042.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8294651

Abstract

This study evaluated the accuracy of teachers' ratings and examined whether these ratings are influenced by halo effects. One hundred thirty-nine elementary school teachers viewed videotapes of what they believed were children in regular fourth-grade classrooms. In fact, the children were actors who followed prepared scripts that depicted a child engaging in behaviors characteristic of an attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), an oppositional defiant disorder or a normal youngster. The findings provide support for a bias that was unidirectional in nature. Specifically, teachers rated hyperactive behaviors accurately when the child behaved like an ADHD youngster. However, ratings of hyperactivity and of ADHD symptomatic behaviors were spuriously inflated when behaviors associated with oppositional defiant disorder occurred. In contrast, teachers rated oppositional and conduct problem behaviors accurately, regardless of the presence of hyperactive behaviors. The implications of these findings regarding diagnostic practices and rating scale formats are discussed.

Language: en