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Parental efficacy and child behavior in a community sample of children with and without attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

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ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders

Abstract

Most studies of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) youth have obtained data from the perspective of either children or parents, but not both simultaneously. The purpose of this study was to examine child and parent perspectives on parenting in a large community-based sample of children with and without ADHD. We identified children in grades 4–6 and their parents through surveys administered to a random sample of public schools. We used multivariable logistic regression to determine independent associations between child and parent characteristics and the presence of ADHD while controlling for covariates and clustering by school. Sufficient data were achieved for 2,509 child/parent dyads. Ten percent of youths (n = 240) had been diagnosed with ADHD. Compared with those without ADHD, those with ADHD were more commonly male (67.9 vs. 48.0 %, p < .001) and age 12 or over (16.3 vs. 10.3 %). After adjusting for covariates and clustering, compared to children without ADHD, children with ADHD were significantly more likely to report lower self-regulation (OR = 0.68, 95 % CI = 0.53, 0.88) and higher levels of rebelliousness (OR = 2.00, 95 % CI = 1.52, 2.69). Compared with parents whose children did not have ADHD, parents of children with ADHD rated their overall parental efficacy substantially lower (OR = 0.23, 95 % CI = 0.15, 0.33). However, child assessment of parenting style was similar by ADHD. Despite the internal challenges community-based youth with ADHD face, many parents of ADHD youth exhibit valuable parental skills from the perspective of their children. Feedback of this information to parents may improve parental self-efficacy, which is known to be positively associated with improved ADHD outcomes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Brian A. Primack

  2. Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Brian A. Primack

  3. Program for Research on Media and Health, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 230 McKee Place, Suite 600, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Brian A. Primack

  4. Community Health Research Program, Hood Center for Children and Families, Dartmouth Medical School, Dartmouth, NH, USA

    Kristy M. Hendricks, Meghan R. Longacre, Julia E. Weiss, Linda J. Titus, Michael L. Beach & Madeline A. Dalton

  5. Department of Pediatrics, Dartmouth Medical School, Dartmouth, NH, USA

    Kristy M. Hendricks, Meghan R. Longacre, Anna M. Adachi-Mejia, Julia E. Weiss, Linda J. Titus, Michael L. Beach & Madeline A. Dalton

  6. Department of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Dartmouth, NH, USA

    Linda J. Titus, Michael L. Beach & Madeline A. Dalton

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  1. Brian A. Primack
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  2. Kristy M. Hendricks
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  3. Meghan R. Longacre
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  8. Madeline A. Dalton
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Correspondence to Brian A. Primack.

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Primack, B.A., Hendricks, K.M., Longacre, M.R. et al. Parental efficacy and child behavior in a community sample of children with and without attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD Atten Def Hyp Disord 4, 189–197 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-012-0089-z

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