Child Interpretations of Teacher Behaviors Directed toward Students with and without ADHD Symptoms

Many students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have negative social experiences with classmates and teachers. The Making Socially Accepting Inclusive Classrooms (MOSAIC) intervention asked teachers to give positive attention strategies to students at risk for ADHD, at a 3:1 ratio compared to their peers. Evidence suggested that although MOSAIC students at risk for ADHD reported improved relationships with teachers, they were more disliked by their classroom peers, relative to counterparts in a typical practice control group. The current study sought to investigate how classroom peers may have interpreted the teacher strategies. An independent sample of 191 children (ages 5–10; 102 boys) watched video vignettes displaying a teacher using MOSAIC strategies with a student. Participants were randomized into one of four conditions manipulating (a) the ADHD status of the student in the video (ADHD or Neurotypical), and (b) the equality in the teacher’s implementation of the strategies across all students in the class (Equality or Inequality). Results suggested that children believed the teacher to be less genuine when delivering strategies to a student with ADHD relative to a neurotypical student. When teachers delivered strategies unequally (preferentially to the target student) relative to equally across all students, children found the teacher’s actions to be less justified. Children’s ratings of desired social contact with ADHD targets improved after watching the teacher use the MOSAIC strategies, but remained low overall. These findings underscore the importance of assessing children’s interpretations of teacher-delivered intervention strategies, and have implications for future iterations of MOSAIC.