Social status of boys with both academic problems and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Research findings regarding the impact of low achievement (LA) on the social status and social behavior of learning-disabled (LD) children have been equivocal. Reported findings suggested that a failure of previous studies to control for the impact of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may account for the lack of consensus among previous studies. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relative contributions of LA, LD, and ADHD to problems in social status and social behavior. This was accomplished by assigning second- through sixth-grade boys to one of six groups: ADHD/LD, ADHD/LA, ADHD, LD, LA, and control. Results indicated that serious problems with peer rejection, peer popularity, and social behavior were the most strongly related to the combination of ADHD and LD. Discussion of the implications of current findings includes the importance of identifying appropriate behavioral and academic subgroups when investigating social status and behavior problems.