Poster #28 - Pre-Service Teachers’ Responses to Students with ADHD: Role of ADHD Knowledge, Stress, and Mindfulness Skills

• In Event: Poster Session 20

Abstract

Introduction. Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent disorder among children in the United States. As teachers frequently encounter students with ADHD (Danielson et al., 2016), it is important that they enter the classroom with an accurate working knowledge of ADHD and the skills to effectively respond to support the social, emotional, and behavioral development of these students. However, evidence suggests that pre-service teachers lack an understanding of ADHD, with little research on how teachers naturally respond to these students (Poznanski et al., 2018). Teachers’ own background, specifically their knowledge of ADHD, stress, and mindfulness skills, could influence the supportiveness of their responses to students with ADHD. Conceptually, the Prosocial Classroom Model (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009) posits that stress negatively impacts teachers’ capacity to support students whereas mindfulness skills are thought to be related to supportive interactions with students due to the open, nonjudgmental awareness of students’ behaviors and needs. We know of no studies investigating how knowledge of ADHD, stress, and mindfulness skills are related to teachers’ responses when working with students who have ADHD, information which has important implications for the development of intervention programs.
Research Questions and Hypotheses. The present study tests the following research questions (RQs): Are pre-service teachers’ RQ1) knowledge of ADHD, RQ2) occupational stress, and RQ3) mindfulness skills associated with the supportiveness of their responses when working with students with ADHD? RQ4) Does mindfulness moderate the association between occupational stress and teachers’ responses to students with ADHD? Regarding RQ1, we hypothesized that teachers who are more (vs. less) knowledgeable about ADHD would report more supportive responses to students with ADHD. For RQ2, we hypothesized that high levels of stress would be related to less supportive responses to students with ADHD. For RQ3, We hypothesized teachers’ mindfulness skills would be positively related to supportive responses. For RQ4, we hypothesized the negative association between occupational stress and teachers' supportive responses would be weaker for teachers with greater (vs. lower) mindfulness skills. The research questions and hypotheses for this study are preregistered at AsPredicted (#107649).
Methods and Data. Pre-service teachers at a large public institution in the Southeastern United States participated in this study. Pre-service teachers’ knowledge of ADHD was assessed using the Knowledge of Attention Deficit Disorders Scale (Scuittio et al., 2000). Teachers’ responses when working with students with ADHD were assessed using a vignette measure from Ohan et al. (2011). Stress was measured with the Perceived Occupational Stress Scale-4 Item version (Marcatto et al., 2021). Mindfulness was measured using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form (Gu et al., 2016).
Results. Data collection is currently underway and will conclude on September 30, 2022. Multiple linear regression models will be employed to address the research questions.
Significance.This study will contribute to our understanding of pre-service teachers’ current knowledge of ADHD and naturalistic responses to working with these students. In addition, results will provide evidence regarding potential points of intervention which could be targeted in interventions to facilitate teachers’ supportive responses when working with these vulnerable students.

Authors

• Anna Catherine Henley, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
  Presenting Author

• Summer S Braun, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa