Prevalence of hyperactivity among newly immigrated Chinese-American children

There has been little research on the prevalence of hyperactivity among Chinese or Chinese-American children. We administered the 28-item Conners Teacher Rating Scale (TRS) to the teachers of recently immigrated Chinese-American children in grades one through six and obtained data on 282 children. The percentages of children scoring above the criterion score for hyperactivity were 8.76% (boys) and 1.72% (girls). These percentages are less than those reported for comparable samples from all other countries, except South Africa. A factor analysis of the TRS data revealed a factor structure that was largely similar to that reported by Conners, but with notable differences between boys and girls. The relative contributions of genetic and cultural factors to the etiology of hyperactivity are considered in a discussion of the prevalence data.