Gender Differences in Children's Hyperactivity, Inattention, and Impulsivity

儿童多动、注意力不集中和冲动的性别差异

• 批准号: 0077633
• 负责人: Alexandra Brewis
• 金额: $ 25.52万
• 依托单位: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-09-01 至 2004-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0077633&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Gender; Differences; Children; Hyperactivity; Inattention

Impulsive, inattentive and hyperactive children have greater social and academic problems than their peers, at least in the U.S. Teachers and parents find these behaviors difficult to manage, especially in mid-childhood. This research will use a comparative, cross-cultural design to clarify whether these behaviors are similar, have the same consequences for children, and pose the same challenges to parents and teachers, in different countries. This has significant implications for child learning and development in cross-cultural circumstances, whether in multi-ethnic classrooms in the U.S. or internationally. It also has implications for conditions in which children's behavior becomes classified as problem behavior, and how interventions for these behaviors might be designed to promote academic and social wellbeing for children and their caregivers.The comparison will be made between children in three countries: US (Texas), Mexico, and Belize. These cultural settings have been chosen because they have varying teacher and parent values about children's talkativeness and activity. Social and academic consequences of impulsive, inattentive, and hyperactive behaviors will be compared across these settings. Children's behavior will be assessed at home, in the classroom and on the playground, using a combination of anthropological, biological, and psychological methods.Particular attention will be paid to sex differences in behavior, because previous clinical studies have shown that severe levels of impulsive, inattentive and hyperactive behavior are much more likely to be found in boys. By using a biocultural research design, focusing on both biological and cultural contexts of the behaviors, this study will be able to clarify the roles of cultural and biological variation in producing sex differences in these behaviors. Currently, there is a poor understanding of the girls' and boys' behavior patterns, and the different reactions they may get from teachers, parents and other children. This research also has implications for children's academic and social well being, and why it may vary by sex and ethnicity. Most previous studies have focused only on pathological or extreme degrees of these behaviors, ignoring the fact that most children display these behaviors at least occasionally. Yet, even lesser degrees of impulsive, inattentive and hyperactive behavior may also have significant positive or negative consequences for many children. This study will provide the first clear evidence of the naturally occurring range of these behaviors and should be of interest to researchers in the fields of anthropology, psychology and education.

冲动、注意力不集中和过度活跃的孩子比同龄人有更大的社会和学业问题，至少在美国是这样。教师和家长发现这些行为很难管理，尤其是在童年中期。这项研究将采用比较、跨文化的设计来阐明这些行为是否相似，是否对儿童产生相同的后果，以及是否对不同国家的家长和老师带来相同的挑战。这对跨文化环境下的儿童学习和发展具有重大影响，无论是在美国还是国际上的多种族课堂。它还对儿童行为被归类为问题行为的条件以及如何设计对这些行为的干预措施以促进儿童及其照顾者的学业和社会福祉产生影响。将对三个国家的儿童进行比较：美国（德克萨斯州）、墨西哥和伯利兹。选择这些文化环境是因为教师和家长对孩子的健谈和活动有不同的价值观。 将在这些环境中比较冲动、注意力不集中和过度活跃行为的社会和学术后果。儿童的行为将在家里、教室和操场上进行评估，综合运用人类学、生物学和心理学的方法。我们将特别关注行为上的性别差异，因为之前的临床研究表明，男孩更容易出现严重的冲动、注意力不集中和过度活跃的行为。 通过使用生物文化研究设计，重点关注行为的生物和文化背景，本研究将能够阐明文化和生物变异在这些行为中产生性别差异的作用。 目前，人们对女孩和男孩的行为模式以及他们可能从老师、家长和其他孩子那里得到的不同反应了解甚少。 这项研究还对儿童的学业和社会福祉产生影响，以及为什么它可能因性别和种族而异。之前的大多数研究只关注这些行为的病态或极端程度，而忽略了大多数儿童至少偶尔会表现出这些行为的事实。 然而，即使是较轻的冲动、注意力不集中和过度活跃的行为也可能对许多儿童产生显着的积极或消极后果。这项研究将为这些行为的自然发生范围提供第一个明确的证据，并且应该引起人类学、心理学和教育领域的研究人员的兴趣。