Examining Parental Psychopathology, Parenting, and Coparenting in Families of Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

Many questions remain regarding families of children with ADHD such as the links between parental psychopathology, parenting and coparenting variables and child adjustment. I examined self-reported parenting, coparenting and psychopathology in parents of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and in parents of children without ADHD. Mothers and fathers of 25 children (9 girls, 16 boys) aged 6-12 with ADHD and 20 children without ADHD (8 girls, 12 boys) completed the positive involvement subscale of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (Shelton, Frick, & Wootton, 1996), the Parenting Scale (Arnold, O’Leary, Wolff & Acker, 1993), the Child-Rearing Disagreements scale (Jouriles et al., 1991), the Parental Alliance Measure (Abidin & Brunner, 1995), the Adult Self-Report (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2003) and the Conners’ Adult Attention Rating Scale-Screening Version (Conners, Erhardt, & Sparrow, 1999). Both mothers and fathers of children with ADHD reported more symptoms of ADHD, internalizing problems, and tobacco use than did mothers and fathers of children without ADHD. In addition, children with ADHD were significantly more likely than children without ADHD to live in families where both the mother and the father experienced high levels of symptomatology. There were significant gender differences in parenting, with mothers reporting more laxness and greater involvement than did fathers. Significant group differences were found, with parents of children with ADHD reporting more overreactivity than did parents of children without ADHD. In terms of copa