The Relation between Parent-Teacher Beliefs about Systemic Racism Experienced by Black Children and ADHD Ratings

• In Event: The direct roles of parents and teachers as socialization agents for dominant ideologies

Abstract

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by developmentally deviant levels of inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity. ADHD is one of the most diagnosed psychiatric conditions for youth in the U.S., and its diagnosis relies heavily on subjective symptom ratings by parents and teachers. However, parent-teacher disagreements on symptom ratings are often more pronounced between parents and teachers of different races (Harvey et al., 2013). These discrepancies exist even when Black parents and white teachers observe and rate the same child behavior, and white teachers’ racial prejudice against Black Americans appears to be one factor that contributes to their inflated ratings of Black boys’ ADHD behaviors (Kang & Harvey, 2020). A second key factor that may affect both parent-teacher ratings is their beliefs about systemic racism experienced by Black children. If parents have greater beliefs that Black children experience systemic racism, they may hold different attributions for Black children’s externalizing behaviors compared to white teachers (e.g., trauma response to racism; Thompson et al., 2020). Black parents may give lower externalizing behavior ratings to Black children out of protectiveness against systemic racism, while white teachers who do not believe such racism exists may give higher ratings. As a first step in understanding these processes in parent-teacher discrepancies, this study examined parent-teacher beliefs about systemic racism experienced by Black children as a potential mediator of how Black parents and white teachers rate Black children’s ADHD symptoms.

Participants included 135 white U.S. elementary school teachers (102 female, Mage = 36.27), and 86 Black parents (62 female, 24 male; Mage = 37.81) of elementary school-aged children. Participants watched eight 1-minute videoclips (2 Black boys, 2 Black girls, 2 white boys, and 2 white girls) and rated a designated child’s ADHD behaviors, followed by measures of implicit and explicit racial biases, and the Beliefs about Children’s Experiences (BCE) scale developed for this study to assess the extent to which participants believe Black children experience racism by different institutions (see Table 1). Exploratory factor analysis indicated a single factor for the BCE scale with excellent reliability across items (alpha = .97), so a total score was used for analysis. White teachers, on average, endorsed fewer beliefs about systemic racism than did Black parents (p < .001), which was related to greater implicit (r = -.19, p = .03) and explicit (r = -.24, p = .005) racial prejudice, and greater implicit (r = -.26, p = .003) and explicit (r = -.24, p = .005) ADHD stereotypes towards Black boys. Importantly, a mediation analysis showed that teachers reported fewer beliefs about systemic racism experienced by Black children than did parents, which in turn predicted higher ADHD ratings for Black girls (Figure 1), though this indirect effect was marginally significant for Black boys’ ADHD ratings (p = .10). Taken together, these results point to differences in how Black parents and white teachers believe in the experiences of systemic racism by Black children, and these differences being a potential contributor to parent-teacher disagreements in ratings Black children’s ADHD behaviors.

Authors

• Sungha Kang, Loyola University Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Nilanjana Buju Dasgupta, University of Massachusetts Amherst

• Sarah A Fefer, University of Massachusetts Amherst

• Elizabeth A Harvey, University of Massachusetts Amherst