Bound Volume Number

VI

Degree Type

Honors Capstone Project

Date of Submission

Spring 5-5-2015

Capstone Advisor

Dr. Kevin Antshel

Honors Reader

Dr. Leonard Newman

Capstone Major

Psychology

Capstone College

Arts and Science

Audio/Visual Component

no

Keywords

Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), stigma

Capstone Prize Winner

no

Won Capstone Funding

no

Honors Categories

Social Sciences

Subject Categories

Personality and Social Contexts

Abstract

Previous research has examined both ADHD and public stigma as well as ADHD and malingering in college students. Nonetheless, to date, no research has examined all three variables simultaneously. To explore these relationships, we investigated college students’ opinions of ADHD and hypothesized that there will be a hierarchical pattern of public stigma: typical college students will report the most while college students with ADHD will report the least and the malingering group will fall between the two. The participants consisted of 106 undergraduate students that completed a questionnaire that was developed to assess opinions of mental health diagnoses (depression, ADHD), “normal troubles,” their opinions towards mental health treatment as well as an ADHD stigma scale. Some of the students were given the questionnaire while another group was coached to feign or malinger ADHD and then to complete the questionnaire. The results of the study were consistent with hypotheses: typical college students had the most stigma towards ADHD; whereas, ADHD students had the least stigma and malingering students were between the two. These results suggest that public stigma may be a variable when considering why malingering of ADHD occurs. Future research should consider the extent to which low levels of stigma increase the likelihood of malingering in college students.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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