The role of parental attributions and affect in parenting strategies: Are parents of ADHD and comparison children different?
Abstract
The goal of the present study was to simultaneously examine parental attributions, affect, and parenting behavior in ADHD and comparison families using a multimethod approach. Specifically, parents read vignettes, watched video clips of a confederate child, and watched video clips of their own child engaged in positive and negative behaviors. Participants were families of 27 children with ADHD (26 mothers and 15 fathers) and families of 29 comparison children (29 mothers and 19 fathers). A number of significant differences were found between mothers of children with ADHD and mothers of comparison children with regard to parental attributions, affect, and parenting. Specifically, mothers of children with ADHD reported more power assertive parenting in response to negative child behaviors than mothers of comparison children. They also attributed inattentive-impulsive behavior to more internal and global/stable, but less controllable factors and reported more negative affect in response to this behavior than mothers of comparison children. Interestingly, mothers of children with ADHD reported more positive reinforcement in response to positive behaviors than mothers of comparison children while attributing positive behaviors to less global/stable factors than mothers of comparison children. The current findings also suggest that regardless of ADHD status, positive relationships exist among maternal attributions, affect, and parenting behavior for both positive and negative behaviors with the strongest, most consistent relationships being between affect and parenting. Additionally, while limited in scope, the current findings suggest that certain attribution dimensions appear to be more important than others in predicting maternal affect and parenting behavior. The current findings also suggest that neither the interaction between attributions and affect nor the interactions of child status with either attributions or affect were important in predicting parenting behavior. Finally, as a result of limited power, few significant findings emerged for father data. Therefore, paternal findings were not reported in detail. Implications for making future predictions related to fathers will be discussed.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Hoza, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy|Social psychology
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