From Under-Diagnosis to Over-Representation: Black Children, ADHD, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Identifier

1360

Author

Myles Daniel Moody

Date

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Sociology

Committee Chair

Zandria Robinson

Committee Member

Anna Mueller

Committee Member

Wesley James

Abstract

This thesis argues that the under-diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) in black children is a result of racism that is structurally and institutionally embedded within school policing policies, and the tendency to not recognize black illness. The purpose of this research is to examine how micro-processes lead to structural inequality within education for black children. It seeks to better understand how institutionalized racism and flawed behavioral ascriptions lead to the under-diagnosis of ADHD in black children, and how that may also lead to their over-representation in the school-to-prison pipeline. The goal of this study was to collect ethnographic, empirical data on the ways that racism within some schools 1) may contribute to the under-diagnosis of ADHD in black children, 2) how their under-diagnosis and lack of treatment leads to their over-punishment, and 3) how they are over-represented in the school-to prison pipeline, possibly as a result of such disparities.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

Recommended Citation

Moody, Myles Daniel, "From Under-Diagnosis to Over-Representation: Black Children, ADHD, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1146.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/etd/1146