Description of the Howell Dataset for the Stats 1

Final Research Project

NOTE: Use the information below to modify/add variable names and labels in your SPSS dataset.

Howell and Huessy (1985) reported on a study of 386 children who during childhood had or had not exhibited symptoms of attention deficit disorder (ADD), previously known as hyperkinesis or minimal brain dysfunction. For a more complete description of this research, see below. In 1965 teachers of all second-grade school children in a number of schools in northwestern Vermont were asked to complete a questionnaire for each of their students dealing with behaviors commonly associated with ADD. Questionnaires on these same children were again completed when they were in the fourth and fifth grades. For purposes of this dataset only, those three scores were averaged to produce a score labeled ADDSC. The higher the score, the more ADD-like behaviors the child exhibited. At the end of ninth grade and again at the end of twelfth grade, information on the performance of these children was obtained from school records. There data offer the opportunity to examine questions about whether later behavior can be predicted from earlier behavior and to examine academically related variables and their relationships. A description of each variable follows:

ADDSC =The average of the three ADD-like behavior scores obtained in elementary school
SEX 1=male; 2=female
REPEAT 1 = repeated at least one grade; 0=did not repeat a grade
IQ IQ obtained from a group administered IQ test
ENGL Level of English in ninth grade: 1= college prep; 2 = general; 3 = remedial

ENGG Grade in English in ninth grade; 4 = A; 3 = B, etc.
GPA Grade point average in ninth grade
SOCPROB Social problems in ninth grade: 1=yes; 0=no
DROPOUT 1= dropped out during high school; 0=did not drop out

Howell and Huessy (1985) conducted a 15-year longitudinal study that examined the stability, prevalence and predictive power of hyperkinetic (hyperkinesis/minimal brain dysfunction/ attention deficit disorder (ADD)) types of behaviors, as well as the long-term outcomes for hyperkinetic children as compared to non-hyperkinetic children with regard to academic achievement, social-interpersonal development, and employment (Howell, 2004; Howell and Huessy, 1985; Huessy and Gendron, 1970; Howell, Huessy, and Hassuk, 1985). Six waves of data were collected from 1965 - 1976, and 1979 (Huessy & The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, 1987). The original 1965 sample consisted of 500, six to eight year old children enrolled in second grade from 18 rural schools within 40 miles of Burlington, Vermont (Huessy et al., 1987). Two sub-samples of children were derived for the study, those exhibiting ADD behaviors (though not formally diagnosed), and those having no ADD behaviors. The students exhibiting ADD-like behaviors were chosen based upon those who excelled a cutoff score of 62 on the Huessy-Marshall Rating Scale (Huessy et. al.). Children who did not score in the 80 ^th percentile were considered non-hyperkinetic. The original sample consisted of 500 White-American second graders, with only 369 participants available for the sixth wave, structured interview.

The assessments utilized in the studies comprised the Huessy-Marshall Teacher Rating Scale (a 21-itemed, five point scaled, teacher questionnaire used to detect ADD-like behaviors in children during the 2 ^nd , 4 ^th , and 5 ^th grades) utilized in the first three waves and a sub-sample of the fourth, school record examination (assessment used to determine the number of grades repeated, academic levels, GPA, final English, math, science, and social studies grades, and maladjusted behaviors, during the 9 ^th and 12 ^th grade years) utilized during the fourth and fifth waves, and 90 minute face to face or telephone structured interviews having 174 items (conducted when the population achieved the age of 21) assessing educational achievement, military, marital, and employment status, medical, family, and criminal histories, self-perception and satisfaction with life, and narcotic use (Huessy et al.). Besides school records utilized to derive cases histories, further measurement instruments included the Kulman-Finch Intelligence Test, the Otis-Lennon Mental Abilities Test, the Otis-Lennon Intermediate Test, the Cooperative School & College Ability Test (SCAT), the California Achievement Test, and the Iowa Achievement Test. According to Huessy and Howell (1985), data analysis revealed that subjects having ADD-like behaviors in elementary school performed considerably poorer academically and socially in 9 ^th and 12 ^th grades, while the subgroup having no ADD-like behaviors performed better academically in high school.

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