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

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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.

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Notes

  1. Confederate child behavior, and not the behavior of the couples’ own children, was used as the main effect of child ADHD/ODD in the present study. The primary aim of the larger study (Wymbs and Pelham 2010) from which data was gathered to conduct this study was to examine whether disruptive, ADHD/ODD-like child behavior caused interparental discord. Utilizing confederate children to enact ADHD/ODD-like or typical child behavior was the most appropriate strategy to conduct an initial examination of child effects on marital quality. Regarding the present study, relying on confederate behavior as the child behavior main effect allowed for us to test directly how parents respond in-the-moment to ADHD/ODD-like or typical child behavior.

  2. As described previously (Wymbs and Pelham 2010), maternal and paternal age, race, marital status, and household income did not differ between parents of children with and without ADHD. Furthermore, the age, gender, and race of their children also did not differ statistically between groups. Notably, the ADHD status of parents’ own children was not a risk factor of interest in the present study. ADHD/ODD behavior as exhibited by confederate children during interactions with parents was the primary child effect measured in this study. Nonetheless, given its prominent role in sample selection, ADHD status of the parents’ own children was included as a covariate in all analyses.

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Acknowledgments

This study was conducted using data collected by Dr. Brian T. Wymbs as part of his dissertation project, chaired by William E. Pelham Jr. at the University of Buffalo, State University of New York. Dr. Wymbs’s dissertation was funded by an Elizabeth Munsterberg Koppitz Fellowship from the American Psychological Foundation, as well as grants from the University at Buffalo; research societies (American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, Society for a Scientific Clinical Psychology, and Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology); and advocacy organizations (Children and Adults With ADHD and Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention and Treatment). Portions of this study were presented at the 2013 convention of the International Society for Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology in Leuven, Belgium.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Porter Hall, Athens, OH, 45701, USA

    Brian T. Wymbs, Frances A. Wymbs & Anne E. Dawson

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  1. Brian T. Wymbs
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Correspondence to Brian T. Wymbs.

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Wymbs, B.T., Wymbs, F.A. & Dawson, A.E. Child ADHD and ODD Behavior Interacts with Parent ADHD Symptoms to Worsen Parenting and Interparental Communication. J Abnorm Child Psychol 43, 107–119 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-014-9887-4

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