Date of Award

2013

Degree Type

Dissertation

Department

Education and Human Services

First Advisor

Toman, Sarah

Subject Headings

Attention-deficit-disordered children -- Education -- United States, Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder -- Treatment -- United States, Learning disabled children -- Education -- United States, ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder summer treatment program comorbidity

Abstract

Although there is substantial support for the efficacy of the Summer Treatment Program (Pelham, Gnagy et al., 2010) for children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), limited research has evaluated whether children diagnosed with additional mental health disorders (comorbidity) show positive outcomes and improvements when exposed to an intensive behavior program such as the Summer Treatment Program (STP). Furthermore, there is no research available that shows whether children from differing ages or gender who are diagnosed with additional mental health disorders (comorbidity) show improvements over the course of treatment. With such limited research, this study investigated a few of the questions raised about the treatment outcomes of the STP and whether children diagnosed ADHD, with and without comorbid conditions, have positive treatment outcomes and efficacy differences as a function of comorbidity, gender and age. This particular research study examined archival data from 345 children, aged 6 to 12 years old, who enrolled in a 7-week Summer Treatment Program from the summers of 1999 -- 2012. The dependent variable included the STP point system total weekly points earned from the program utilized as the indicator of the rate of change. A series of mixed-effects regression models were computed with the independent measures for age group, gender comparisons, and ADHD comorbidity to address four research questions. The results of this investigation indicated no significant difference for children diagnosed with ADHD alone in treatment outcomes from those children diagnosed with ADHD comorbidity. Both children with ADHD alone and those with ADHD comorbidity made treatment gains over the course of the program. Secondly, significant differences were found between males and females diagnosed with ADHD comorbidity regarding treatment outcomes, in that females earned significantly more points than males during the summer treatment program. Thirdly, there were no significant age grou

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