Inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, and mathematics: Exploring gender differences in a nonclinical sample.
Teacher-rated inattention keeps girls behind in math while boys slowly catch up.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Teachers rated first-grade boys and girls on inattention and hyperactivity.
The team tracked each child’s math scores for two years.
All kids were in regular classrooms; none had ADHD diagnoses.
What they found
Inattention dragged math growth for both sexes.
Girls stayed behind; boys partly caught up by second grade.
When inattention was held still, hyperactivity gave a tiny math boost.
How this fits with other research
Moya et al. (2022) saw the same inattention-math drop in kids who do have ADHD.
Costa et al. (2013) found early inattention also predicts later reading trouble.
Baerg et al. (2011) looks opposite: girls with ADHD moved more, not less.
The clash fades when you see Sally used wrist sensors, not teacher ratings.
Why it matters
Watch girls who day-dream; their math gap may stay open.
Boys can close some ground, so extra help early matters for both.
If a child is restless but not inattentive, channel that energy into math games.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In this study, we considered two subscales of attention problem (AP) behaviour, inattentiveness and hyperactivity/impulsivity, as latent traits, extreme values of which indicate attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We examined gender differences in these traits in a community sample of Russian schoolchildren and estimated the extent to which the association of AP behaviour and math achievement varied for boys and girls. The data from a three-wave longitudinal study of math achievement of 958 children (49 % girls) were used, and growth in math achievement was estimated. The levels of inattentiveness and hyperactivity/impulsivity of each child were measured based on teachers' responses using the Behaviour Rating Scale (BRS). The results demonstrated that inattentiveness had a negative association with math achievement, while hyperactivity/impulsivity was positively associated with math achievement when inattentiveness was controlled for. Inattentiveness was negatively associated with math achievement in both boys and girls. However, the size of this association decreased over time for boys, so the gap between boys with high inattentiveness and low inattentiveness decreased from grade 1 to grade 2. Meanwhile, for girls, the association between inattentiveness and math remained stable, so the gap between girls with high inattentiveness and girls with low inattentiveness did not change.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2021.104107