Abstract
There is a generally held belief that disorders of attention (e.g., ADHD) are to be found primarily among boys, not girls. We question the evidence relating to sex differences in the prevalence of attentional disorders and suggest possible reasons why reported sex differences appear limited to teacher ratings. An examination of the admittedly scarce literature on correlates of ADHD behaviors suggests no strong evidence for sex differences in the pattern of developmental, attentional and background correlates. We recommend the use of sex-specific norms and diagnostic criteria to identify girls with problems of attention and our plea is for more research to examine the nature of attention deficits in girls.
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McGee, R., Feehan, M. Are girls with problems of attention underrecognized?. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 13, 187–198 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00960783
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00960783