Urbanization, Culture & Hyperactivity: An Exploratory Study of Omani Schoolgirls

Although formulated for Western populations, the study of variation in human behaviors within the advocated diagnostic categories of the Western psychiatric nosology has been found to be universally applicable. This paper attempts to tease out whether gender differences are shaped by socio-cultural or ecological factors by examining the prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a sample of 708 Omani schoolgirls residing in Muscat, the capital of Oman. Academic performance, and some intellectual and social correlates were also explored. The findings reveal that academic, intellectual and social correlates fluctuate in complex ways. The prevalence of ADHD amongst Omani students was 5%, a rate that is lower than what is observed in many Western samples. The authors discuss the importance of socio-cultural versus ecological factors that might play a role in the expression of hyperactivity and speculate about the gender related issues concerning ADHD in an Arab/Islamic country. The comparative approach to study variation in human behavior was initially formulated for the Western populations, but eventually, the diagnostic categories of the Western psychiatric nosology was advocated as universally applicable to all humankind. In Kiev’s (1972) view, forms o