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Visual Abstract
Are the performance overestimates given by boys with ADHD self-protective?
Jeneva L Ohan , Charlotte Johnston
Summarized by:
Charles Li, MD
August 8, 2023
study source
J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol
Jun 2002
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What they studied
Do boys with ADHD inflate their outer appearance and self-evaluations to make up for perceived shortcomings?
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What they found
Boys with ADHD who were given positive feedback were more likely to provide more accurate self-evaluations. They also performed better on tests.
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What this means
Positive feedback is a vital part of helping boys with ADHD "open up" and perform at their best.
Are the performance overestimates given by boys with ADHD self-protective?
Objectives
ADHD can make life hard for young boys and girls. It affects how well children perform in school.
Even highly intelligent children can experience significant adverse effects from ADHD in their social and personal lives:
This study wanted to examine whether boys with ADHD overestimate their abilities or overcompensate for their perceived shortcomings by projecting an overly-positive self-image.
Study Quote
Tested the self-protective hypothesis that boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) overestimate their performance to protect a positive self-image.
Methods
Researchers performed a case-control study comparing 45 boys with ADHD and 43 boys without ADHD.
By comparing closely matched groups, where the main difference is the presence of ADHD, researchers can see potential differences linked with ADHD.
What is a case control study
Study Quote
We examined the impact of performance feedback on the social and academic performance self-perceptions of 45 boys with and 43 boys without ADHD ages 7 to 12.
Results
The results showed that, as expected, teachers were less likely to have positive opinions of boys with ADHD.
Interestingly, boys who were given positive feedback were less likely to inflate their self-evaluations. When they felt better about themselves, they were more honest about their opinions about themselves.
Positive feedback also helped boys with ADHD do better on tests.
Study Quote
Consistent with the self-protective hypothesis, positive feedback led to increases in social performance estimates in boys without ADHD but to decreases in estimates given by boys with ADHD. This suggests that boys with ADHD can give more realistic self-appraisals when their self-image ...
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Conclusions
These results show that boys who felt inadequate about their social and academic standings were likelier to inflate their self-evaluations and presentations. They were more likely to compensate for potential insecurities by projecting an overly positive self-image:
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There was a significant positive correlation between expectations of being liked by the teacher and a social desirability responding bias in the ADHD sample but not in the comparison sample. This is consistent with the self-protective explanation that boys with ADHD are compensating for their inadequacies by assuming an unrealistically positive self-presentation.
The authors believed that once boys were provided with encouragement, they were more willing to be honest and vulnerable about their own self-opinions:
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As we hypothesized, boys with ADHD who received positive feedback dropped their estimates of how much the teacher liked them relative to boys with ADHD who received no feedback. This is consistent with the explanation that boys with ADHD offer inflated predictions in an effort to prove themselves to others; only when their success is confirmed can they shed their mask of grandiosity and reveal their substantially lower perceptions.
Study Quote
We conclude that the self-protective hypothesis can account for social performance overestimations given by boys with ADHD but that other factors may better account for their academic performance overestimates.