Primary School Students’ Attitudes Towards Peers Displaying Hyperactivity – Examining Impacts of Homophily and Inter-group contact on Students’ Social Inclusion

Past research indicated that students displaying hyperactivity struggle with their social inclusion, which is partly due to negative attitudes of their peers towards hyperactivity. Attitudes could be improved if other students had contact with, and especially if they developed friendships with, students displaying hyperactivity. In an empirical study, MiSoC researcher Zsófia Boda and her co-authors Sepideh Hassani and Susanne Schwab from the University of Vienna examined the social inclusion of students who displayed hyperactivity and attitudes towards hyperactivity. They relied on data of 314 students (aged 9–11) from Austria and estimated dynamic social network models for the co‐evolution of friendships and attitudes. Results reveal that students displaying hyperactivity are at risk of lower social inclusion. Results do not indicate that having classmates or even friends who display hyperactivity is significantly associated with one’s attitudes towards such peers in either direction.