Testing the interactive effect of parent and child ADHD on parenting in mothers and fathers: Aafurther test of the similarity-fit hypothesis

Psychogiou, Lamprini, Daley, Dave, Thompson, Margaret and Sonuga-Barke, Edmund (2007) Testing the interactive effect of parent and child ADHD on parenting in mothers and fathers: Aafurther test of the similarity-fit hypothesis. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 25 (3), 419-433. (doi:10.1348/026151006X170281).

Abstract

Mother and child ADHD symptoms both have a negative effect on parenting. Little is known about how these characteristics interact. In a recent paper, we reported two studies that suggested that maternal ADHD ameliorated the negative effects of child ADHD on negative parenting supporting a similarity-fit hypothesis. The aim of the current paper is to extend this analysis to a sample of mothers and fathers. The study examined the association between child and adult ADHD symptoms on child-specific parenting practices in 278 mothers and 85 fathers from a population-based sample of school-age children. As in the previous study, high levels of ADHD symptoms in mothers ameliorated the negative effects of child ADHD on parenting - supporting the similarity-fit hypothesis. Fathers demonstrated the opposite effect with high levels of ADHD exacerbating the effects of child ADHD - supporting a similarity-misfit hypothesis. The study confirms the important role played by parental ADHD symptoms in parenting while highlighting differences between mothers and fathers in this regard.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Download statistics