Does Child Temperament Play a Role in the Association Between Parenting Practices and Child Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder?

Abstract

Ineffective parenting practices may maintain or exacerbate attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and shape subsequent development of disruptive behavior disorders (DBD’s) in youth with ADHD. Recent theoretical models have suggested that parenting may exert effects on ADHD via its role in child temperament. The current study aimed to evaluate the indirect effects of parenting dimensions on child ADHD symptoms via child temperament. Youth ages 6–17 years (N=498; 50.4 % ADHD, 55 % male) completed a multi-stage, multi-informant assessment that included parent, child, and teacher report measures of parenting practices, child temperament, and ADHD symptoms. Statistical models examined the direct and indirect effects of maternal and paternal involvement, poor supervision, and inconsistent discipline on inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity via child temperament and personality traits. Results indicated differential patterns of effect for negative and positive parenting dimensions. First, inconsistent discipline exerted indirect effects on both ADHD symptom dimensions via child conscientiousness, such that higher levels of inconsistency predicted lower levels of conscientiousness, which in turn, predicted greater ADHD symptomatology. Similarly, poor supervision also exerted indirect effects on inattention via child conscientiousness as well as significant indirect effects on hyperactivity-impulsivity via its impact on both child reactive control and conscientiousness. In contrast, primarily direct effects of positive parenting (i.e., involvement) on ADHD emerged. Secondary checks revealed that similar pathways may also emerge for comorbid disruptive behavior disorders. Current findings extend upon past work by examining how parenting practices influence child ADHD via within child mechanisms and provide support for multi-pathway models accounting for heterogeneity in the disorder.

Confirmation of the five-factor structure of the Parent Global Report version of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire in a Polish community sample

“…parental ADHD symptoms, other parental psychopathology symptoms, parental difficult temperament); and child-driven effects (e.g. genetic vulnerabilities toward hyperactivity-impulsivity, difficult temperament; Hawes et al 2013;Martel et al 2011Martel et al , 2012Nigg et al 2010;Sonuga-Barke et al 2009;Ullsperger et al 2016). We also found that oppositional-defiant symptoms were most strongly associated with inconsistent discipline; however, they were also strongly correlated with other negative parenting practices, such as poor monitoring/supervision and corporal punishment than were ADHD symptoms, thus supporting the hypothesis H1.…”

“…These associations are likely to be complex, incorporating genotype-environment correlation, parent-driven effects, child-driven effects and recursive processes (Ullsperger et al 2016). Previous studies (Martel et al 2011;Martel et al 2012;Nigg et al 2010;Sonuga-Barke et al 2009), for example, have demonstrated that specific genetic influences (associated with dopaminergic neurotransmission) only increase vulnerability to ADHD (in particular, the hyperactivity-impulsivity domain) in the presence of inconsistent parenting.…”

DRD4 Variants Moderate the Impact of Parental Characteristics on Child Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Exploratory Evidence from a Multiplex Family Design

“…Such effects have been documented in very young children and have also shown to have lasting effects across development, which then serve to further exacerbate (or perhaps attenuate) youth behavioral and emotional problems (Barnett and Scaramella 2015). Additionally, there is some evidence that the impact of parenting on child behavior problems may be partially explained by effects of parenting on child temperament traits (Ullsperger et al 2016). Future work will benefit from prospective, genetically-informed designs, which can then examine the independent, interactive, and reciprocal influences of parental and youth genetic and neurobiological factors, psychosocial stressors and enhancements (including both positive and negative parenting) on youth outcomes.…”

“…Additionally, questions were read to children under the age of 12 in order to ensure comprehension of the items and completeness. The poor inconsistent discipline subscale from the APQ was of interest in the current study, as it has been previously associated with ADHD and externalizing spectrum psychopathology in youth (Ellis and Nigg 2009; Shelton et al 1996; Ullsperger et al 2016) and indexes the relevant construct of parental responsiveness and consistency. The inconsistent discipline scale demonstrated adequate reliability for both youth (α = 0.73) and parent report (α = 0.81).…”

ADHD, Lifestyles and Comorbidities: A Call for an Holistic Perspective – from Medical to Societal Intervening Factors

“…From very early on, individuals who later develop ADHD show an irritable temperament. Ineffective, inconsistent, and especially negligent parenting were found to exacerbate ADHD symptoms and be predictive of later disruptive behavior disorders such as Conduct Disorder; furthermore, children who had more positive and involved parenting manifested an improvement of symptoms (Ullsperger et al, 2016). ADHD in its childhood presentations is not only directly influenced by parenting styles but also by parental perception.…”