Uribe Vargas Maria Pia

Sociologist, University of Paris

 Contact: maria.pia.uribe(at)gmail.com

Dissertation defended on 19 October 2021: Gender norms concerning childhood hyperactivity in medical discourse in Santiago de Chile

Directed by Laurence Simmat Durand and Livia Velpry

Even though research on ADHD has had a tendency to attribute a secondary role to differences between genders, recent contributions, principally from epidemiology, show that this diagnostic category seems especially sensitive to aspects of gender. However, these contributions limit their field of investigation to the study of symptomatology and the cognitive, affective and social functioning of girls and boys, leaving to one side the subjective, but also social, historical and cultural aspects associated with diagnostic practices and treatment of ADHD. This is why the objective of this research is to explore the way in which gender differences are presented in diagnostic practices and treatment of ADHD. We examine possible relationships, at the local level, between ADHD and aspects of gender by analysing the discourse used by physicians involved in the mental health care of children in Santiago de Chile concerning their diagnostic and treatment practices for ADHD.