Why Are Boys Diagnosed With ADHD Than Girls?

Why Are Boys Diagnosed With ADHD Than Girls?

Problem Formulation

There is a certain disorder that accounted for three to five million children and adults alike and although it has been identified and described many years ago, it has only been paid enough recognition only recently. This is the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) that occurs to about 3 to 10 percent of school-age children and 4 to 5 percent of adults (2000). Wender (2000), along with many child psychiatrists agreed that this behavior disorder appears and more common in boys than in girls (p. 4). The evidences that prove this assertion are fairly noticeable and clear. Although ADHD occurs to both children at their school-age and to adolescents and adults alike, it has been the purpose of this paper to illustrate and explain appropriately why boys are diagnosed and common with the disorder than girls.

This paper is for the purpose of understanding the relevance of the disorder to the nature of the boys that would clearly answer the question of this essay along with the growing awareness of the problem of ADHD. More importantly, this study helps people, especially parents, in providing the present thinking about the nature of this problem and some recommendations on how to manage it.

Literature Review

In the past, the disorder ADHD had a variety of names given by psychiatrists more usually referring to childhood disorder. It was initially termed “hyperactivity” then gradually became “Attention-Deficit Disorder” (ADD). A separation between the two terms was used to differentiate between children who exhibit hyperactivity but not specifically Attention-Deficit Disorder. For the reason that hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder frequently goes together, psychiatric experts combined it and came up with an official tern Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

(2000) formulated the most important points that would guide parents and all concerned about the ADHD:

ADHD is the most common chronic psychiatric disorder of childhood. It is probably two to three times more frequent in boys than in girls.

ADHD very recurrently continue into adolescence and adulthood. Without treatment, the child is likely to have increasing school difficulties and is much more likely to develop behavioral problems than his non-ADHD classmate that can lead to “at-risk” behavior. The child then becomes at risk to himself and to society and thus, to an extent, in the eyes of the law.

ADHD is not a recent discovery. The symptoms of the disorder in children have been recognized since 1863 by a British physician. Moreover, the treatment and the use of medication for ADHD are also not new with some drugs from the 1930s still being used and available nowadays and even effective than the common drug recently made.

ADHD is likely transmitted genetically. In other words, it is probably a hereditary disorder. The exact way on how ADHD is passed on is still not known, however it may be as a different structure or chemical functioning in the brain.

ADHD often occurs and appears along with other disorders. It frequently goes along with learning disorders as well as behavioral disorders such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Conduct Disorder.

There would be two reasons why it is necessary to identify and treat ADHD as soon as possible: First, treatment will help the child in the very moment before it gets complicated. If the child learns more easily at school, it helps him avoid the anxiety and depression associated with academic difficulties, unpopularity with other children, and conflicts with his parents. Second, early treatment may decrease the risks of problem behavior ADHD children are more likely to develop in adolescence.

The diagnosis of ADHD in children is made on the basis of a careful history from the mother and father or others who have helped raise the child.

There are no special psychological or laboratory tests for determining whether a child has ADHD. As previously mentioned, the diagnosis is based on the interviews described and by rating scales. Although no special psychological or laboratory tests can diagnose ADHD, there are tests to diagnose learning disorders: IQ tests and achievement tests in reading, spelling, and mathematics.

In many instances medication can reduce and sometimes eliminate many of the problems of ADHD in children, adolescents, and adults. Treatment with medication may produce substantial benefit in 70 percent of school-age children and in at least 60 percent of adults with ADHD. An important point about the drugs used to treat ADHD is that they are not addictive in ADHD patients when taken in the doses prescribed. A second point is that the treatment controls the symptoms of ADHD even though it does not cure it. This is not unusual in medicine. For example, insulin does not cure diabetes, but it enables diabetics to metabolize carbohydrates; anticonvulsants do not cure epilepsy, but they prevent epileptic seizures.

Psychological treatment of ADHD can be very helpful for both children and adults. Changes in child-rearing behavior can help parents deal with the ADHD child. Educational remediation (special education or resource education classes) may be useful for ADHD children who also have learning disorders. Currently these treatments are being evaluated in a large collaborative study conducted by the National Institutes of Mental Health.

In adulthood, medication is effective, and studies have shown that such therapies as couple therapy and psychoeducational therapy may be helpful. Others forms of treatment (such as group therapy) are being evaluated.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common and most debilitating disorders amongst school-age children, yet it is probably one of the least well understood. It has received a lot of attention recently, mainly because of the large numbers of children, particularly in the USA, receiving drug treatment for the disorder. Where children have behavioural difficulties and parents are finding it difficult to cope, it is likely that they will turn to teachers for advice and help.

ADHD can significantly affect children’s progress at school, not only their work, but also their social development and the relationships that they have with teachers and their peers. If not detected early, long-term problems can lead to poor educational achievement and social isolation. For these reasons, it is vital that teachers know about the disorder and are able to offer appropriate support to children in their classes and advice to parents, as well as helping them access other sources of information and guidance.

Parents and Teens on ADHD

Eighty-seven male teens (ages 12-18 years) with ADHD/ODD and their parents were compared to 32 male teens and their parents in a community control (CC) group on mother, father, and teen ratings of parent-teen conflict and communication quality, parental self-reports of psychological adjustment, and direct observations of parent-teen problem-solving interactions during a neutral and conflict discussion. Parents and teens in the ADHD/ODD group rated themselves as having significantly more issues involving parent-teen conflict, more anger during these conflict discussions, and more negative communication generally, and used more aggressive conflict tactics with each other than did parents and teens in the CC group.

During a neutral discussion, only the ADHD/ODD teens demonstrated more negative behavior. During the conflict discussion, however, the mothers, fathers, and teens in the ADHD/ODD group displayed more negative behavior, and the mothers and teens showed less positive behavior than did participants in th e CC group. Differences in conflicts related to sex of parent were evident on only a few measures. Both mother and father self-rated hostility contributed to the level of mother-teen conflict whereas father self-rated hostility and anxiety contributed to father-teen conflict beyond the contribution made by level of teen ODD and ADHD symptoms.

Results replicated past studies of mother-child interactions in ADHD/ODD children, extended these results to teens with these disorders, showed that greater conflict also occurs in father-teen interactions, and found that degree of parental hostility, but not ADHD symptoms, further contributed to levels of parent-teen conflict beyond the contribution made by severity of teen ADHD and ODD symptoms.

The vast majority of research on ADHD generally, and parent–child relations specifically, has focused on children, primarily boys, between 5 and 12 years of age. Little research exists on teens with ADHD, most of which comes from follow-up studies of hyperactive children into adolescence. Far less research exists on clinic-referred adolescents with the disorder. This is particularly so for research on parent-teen relations. Yet the extent of parent–teen conflict has been shown to be a significant determinant of concurrent and later adolescent psychological adjustment (1998).

Only two studies have examined the nature of mother–teen interaction patterns in the families of adolescents having ADHD; these studies suggest that conflict is substantially greater than in control groups and is particularly evident in the subset having co-morbid ODD (Barkley, Anastopoulos, Guevremont, & Flecther, 1992; Barkley, Fischer, et al., 1991; Fletcher, Fischer, Barkley, & Smallish, 1996).

In view of the shortage of information on clinic-referred teens having ADHD, and particularly on their parent–teen interactions, the present study sought to investigate further the nature of these interactions in ADHD teens having co-morbid ODD. Specifically, this study attempted to determine whether previous findings on mother–child and mother–teen interactions in co-morbid ADHD/ODD samples could be extended to father–teen interactions. Only three previous studies have examined father–child interactions in ADHD children ( 1992; 1996;1983), and none have studied father–teen interactions.

The previous studies using children found few differences in the father–child interactions of children with ADHD relative to normal children but did find greater conflict in the mother–child than in the father–child interactions (1992; 1983). Once again, the presence of ODD appeared to magnify the reports of family conflict in the ADHD compared to the control families ( 1996).

Method

This study involved a total of 87 male teens with ADHD/ODD and 32 community control male teens recruited over a 3-year period. The teens with ADHD/ODD and their parents were subsequently assigned to one of two behavioral family therapies for the treatment of parent–teen conflict. The results of that treatment study are reported in a separate paper ( ).

All teens enrolled in this study had to be between the ages of 12 and 18 years of age, be the biological child of at least one of the parents living in the home or have been adopted at birth, and have an IQ greater than 80 on the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test ( 1990). Teens were excluded if they had the following conditions: deafness, blindness, severe language delay, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, or psychosis, as established through parental and adolescent interview and history. The teens and parents signed statements of informed consent. The project and consent forms received approval from the institutional review board for research on human subjects.

Conclusion

It is fairly evident that in the study of this paper that ADHD is more common in boys than in girls. A rough estimation could be accounted to boys as the more number of reported cases of ADHD. Even though almost all of the studies concerning ADHD show that the disorder is widespread in boys, some authors and even physicians cannot certainly answer the question on why do ADHD is more common in boys than in girls.

By taking a look at the natural difference of boys from girls, we can probably formulate an answer to the question. Most of the time, boys are more active than girls. Knowing that ADHD is greatly associated with hyperactivity, this reason could be responsible for the still-unsolved mystery of why boys are diagnosed with ADHD than girls.

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