Sociometric Status of Children with Attention Deficit Disorder

The sociometric status of children with attention deficit disorder (ADD) was surveyed in order to determine peer popularity among school children. Sociometric tests were conducted in 28 classrooms which included ADD-children, and sociometric indicators of ADD-children were compared with those of controls who had been randomly selected after being matched to ADD-children by age, sex and classroom.The results were as follows:1. ADD-children received significantly more Social Rejection votes and significantly fewer Social Choice votes than controls. They had a small Mutual Choice number than controls.2. The index of sociometric status score (ISSS) of ADD-children was significantly lower than that of controls.3. The low sociometric status of ADD-children correlated with i) higher grade in school, ii) later first counseling, iii) hyperactive type, iv) lower IQ levels, and v) no history of pharmacotherapy with methylphenidate.4. There was no relation between the sociometric status of ADD-children and the group cohensiveness of the classroom.5. Seventy-one percent of ADD-children were assessed by their parents as having problems in human relations. But those assessments had no relation to the sociometric status of ADD-children.