ADHD and Parental Psychological Distress: Role of Demographics, Child Behavioral Characteristics, and Parental Cognitions

CHRISTINE HARRISON, KATE SOFRONOFF

This study aimed to examine the relative roles of demographic, child behavioral, and parental characteristics in understanding the psychological distress suffered by parents of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It was hypothesized that a combination of child and parent demographics, severity of child behavioral disturbance, low knowledge of ADHD, causal and controllability attributions internal to the child, along with lower perceived parental control, would be associated with more severe psychological distress, as measured by parenting stress and depression. One hundred mothers were interviewed and provided ratings of behavioral disturbance, severity of ADHD, knowledge of ADHD, attributions of cause and controllability of ADHD-related behaviors, parenting stress and depression. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that the combination of these variables was significantly associated with parental psychological distress, accounting for 24% and 21% of the variance in parenting stress and depression, respectively. Unique contributions were evident for severity of behavioral disturbance and perceived parental control over child behaviors. Child's age, gender, medication status, and maternal education were controlled in the analyses. Results support the view that interventions for ADHD aimed only at child behavior are unlikely to alter long-term outcome.