Child ADHD and ODD Behavior Interacts with Parent ADHD Symptoms to Worsen Parenting and Interparental Communication

Abstract

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adults increases risk of parenting difficulties and interparental discord. However, little is known about whether disruptive child behavior and adult ADHD operate additively or synergistically to predict parenting and interparental relationship quality. As part of a larger study, 90 parent couples were randomly assigned to interact with a 9-12 year-old confederate child exhibiting either ADHD/ODD-like behavior or typical behavior. Before these interactions, parents reported their own ADHD symptoms. Afterwards, parents reported on their partner's parenting and interparental communication behavior. Observers coded the parenting and communication behavior of both partners during the tasks. Child ADHD/ODD-like behavior was found to predict less positive and more negative parenting and communication reported by partners and observers beyond adult ADHD symptoms and other covariates. Elevated adult ADHD symptoms only uniquely increased risk of observer-coded negative parenting. Child and adult ADHD behavior interacted synergistically to predict partner-reported negative parenting and interparental communication, such that parents reporting greater ADHD symptoms-especially inattentiveness-were rated by their partners as parenting and communicating more negatively when managing child ADHD/ODD-like behavior than parents with fewer ADHD symptoms or those managing typical child behavior. Child and adult ADHD behavior did not interact to predict observer-coded parenting or interparental communication, and patterns did not differ for mothers or fathers. Our results underscore the potential risk of parents with elevated ADHD symptoms parenting and communicating negatively, at least as perceived by their partners, during interactions with children exhibiting ADHD/ODD behavior.

The Effects of Parental ADHD Symptoms on Parenting Behaviors

“…Finally, Wymbs, Wymbs and Dawson [26] examined the effects of self-reported ADHD symptoms of parents, whose children partly suffered from ADHD, on the interaction with confederate children displaying either ADHD/ODD-like or typical behavior. The authors demonstrated that parental ADHD symptoms were only uniquely correlated with observer-coded negative parenting when confederate child behavior was controlled for.…”

“…Dawson summarize the detrimental effect of parental inattention by stating that inattentive parents tend to ignore contextual factors and that they have more difficulties with predicting (and preventing) undesirable child behavior [26].…”

Does the Environment Have an Enduring Effect on ADHD? A Longitudinal Study of Monozygotic Twin Differences in Children

“…Maternal depression, lower household income, and a less-stimulating and supportive home environment have been associated with increased risk of ADHD (Sagiv, Epstein, Bellinger, & Korrick, 2013), and may act as unique environmental influences if they affect children within the same family differently. A more negative parenting approach, with more frequent commands and less frequent praise, has been observed in parents of children with ADHD; however, the direction of this effect is unclear, as this improved when the children took stimulant medication (Danforth, Anderson, Barkley, & Stokes, 1991), and childrens’ ADHD symptoms may interact with parents’ own ADHD symptoms to produce poorer parenting behaviour (Wymbs, Wymbs, & Dawson, 2015). …”

Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Parenting Styles

“…In a study, 430 ADHD parents and 237 normal parents, both having ADHD children were compared and higher parenting stress was found in the ADHD group [6]. Another study was conducted in 2014 on 90 couples with ADHD children [7]. It was observed that more severity of ADHD symptoms in the parents, higher the levels of negative parenting.…”