The Social Construction of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

This chapter examines the social construction of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by looking at its history, cross-cultural aspects, and how it is described on the Internet. The diversity of findings contrasts to its narrow construction in standard medical and Western public discourses. The chapter begins with a brief overview of the current dominant construction of ADHD as found in mainstream medical/psychiatric literature. In order to explore how ADHD came to occupy a hegemonic position in the modern child and adolescent mental health lexicon, its developmental history is outlined and a number of key drivers such as the impact of the pharmaceutical industry, commodification, and changing child-rearing patterns and expectations are discussed. Next, the cross-cultural research literature is summarised. Here there is a contrast between attempts to identify commonalities, in order to ‘squeeze’ diverse cultural beliefs and practices around children and child development into simplistic Westernised categories like ADHD, and more anthropologically informed research that explores these diversities. We then review findings from an Internet-search-based research project. This research used a standard search engine (Google) to search the themes of ‘What is ADHD’, ‘What causes ADHD’, and ‘ADHD treatment’. This is followed by a thematic content analysis of the most commonly cited web pages for each question. The study helps us gain a glimpse into the type of discourses that members of the UK public are likely to encounter when carrying out their own searches on the topic of ADHD.