Maternal ADHD Symptoms, Personality, and Parenting Stress: Differences Between Mothers of Children With ADHD and Mothers of Comparison Children

• Main Authors: Arnold, L.E (Author), Copley, L.M (Author), Hechtman, L. (Author), Hinshaw, S.P (Author), Jensen, P.S (Author), Kragh, C.A (Author), Lowe, M. (Author), Molina, B.S.G (Author), Perez Algorta, G. (Author), Swanson, J.M (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications Inc. 2018
• Subjects: ADHD; adult; Adult; attention deficit disorder; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity; child; Child; child parent relation; comparative study; female; Female; human; Humans; male; Male; mental stress; mother; mother child relation; Mother-Child Relations; Mothers; parenting; Parenting; personality; Personality; personality disorder; Personality Disorders; psychology; stress; Stress, Psychological
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher
• ISBN: 10870547 (ISSN)
• DOI: 10.1177/1087054714561290

Objective: Mothers raising a child with ADHD can experience high parenting stress. We evaluated if mothers’ personality traits and own ADHD symptoms could also affect parenting stress. Method: 430 biological mothers from the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA mothers) and 237 of a local normative comparison group (LNCG mothers) were evaluated at baseline. Interactions were tested between mothers’ group and maternal personality/ADHD symptoms related to parenting stress. Results: Compared to LNCG, MTA mothers had higher parenting stress, self-reported ADHD, neuroticism, and lower conscientiousness and agreeableness. When personality and ADHD were evaluated together, ADHD symptoms interacted with mothers’ group: high maternal ADHD was positively associated with parenting stress for LNCG but not MTA mothers. Conclusion: Personality traits or ADHD characteristics do not appear operative for the high parenting stress of mothers of a child with ADHD. However, high maternal ADHD or low conscientiousness are associated with stress levels similar to raising a child with ADHD. © The Author(s) 2014.