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. 2021 Dec;30(12):2966-2979.
doi: 10.1007/s10826-021-02131-x. Epub 2021 Oct 23.

Parenting Stress during Late Adolescence in Mothers of Individuals with ADHD with and without ODD

Chanelle T Gordon  1 , Gregory A Fabiano  1 , Nicole K Schatz  2 , Karen Hulme  1 , Rebecca K Vujnovic  1
Affiliations

Parenting Stress during Late Adolescence in Mothers of Individuals with ADHD with and without ODD

Chanelle T Gordon et al. J Child Fam Stud. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Although children with ADHD continue to experience impairment well into adolescence, research exploring the experiences of their parents during late adolescence is lacking. Thus, we examined changes in parenting stress and family conflict in mothers of adolescents with ADHD during the transition to early adulthood. We also explored predictors of these changes in addition to investigating differences in these trajectories due to comorbid ODD. Forty-nine mothers of adolescents with ADHD only and thirty-seven mothers of adolescents with ADHD/ODD reported on parenting stress and perceptions of family conflict at baseline (mean age = 16.88) and at 3-month, 9-month, and 15-month follow up assessments. Growth curve modeling indicated that both groups of mothers reported relative declines in parenting stress and family conflict across time. However, the mothers of adolescents with ADHD/ODD persistently reported more stress and conflict. Furthermore, decreases in family conflict were more predictive of reduced parenting stress in families of adolescents only diagnosed with ADHD. Our findings suggest that comorbid ODD is associated with parenting stress during late adolescence. Thus, interventions should focus on further reducing this stress as adolescents with ADHD/ODD transition to adulthood.

Keywords: ADHD; Family conflict; ODD; Parent-child relationships; Parenting stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: Dr. Fabiano has received an investigator-initiated research grant from Shire Pharmaceuticals. The other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Regression of Wave 4 Parenting Stress on the Trajectories of Mother-reported Family Conflict for Adolescents with ADHD and those with ADHD/ODD
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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