Elsevier

Behavior Therapy

Volume 41, Issue 4, December 2010, Pages 491-504
Behavior Therapy

Parenting Cognitions and Treatment Beliefs as Predictors of Experience Using Behavioral Parenting Strategies in Families of Children With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2010.02.001Get rights and content

Abstract

We tested a model of mothers' parenting efficacy and attributions for child ADHD behaviors as predictors of experiences with behavioral treatment. The model proposed that mothers' beliefs regarding the acceptability and effectiveness of behavioral strategies would intervene between mothers' cognitions about parenting and child behavior and their treatment experiences. Participants were 101 mothers of 5- to 10-year-old children (82% male) with ADHD. Mothers reported their parenting efficacy and attributions for child behavior, and then received a single session of treatment teaching 2 behavior management strategies. Then, mothers reported their beliefs regarding the acceptability and effectiveness of these strategies. A follow-up phone interview 1 week later assessed mothers' experiences in using the behavioral strategies. The overall model fit the data. Attributions of child ADHD behavior as more pervasive, enduring, and within the child's control were related to seeing behavioral treatment as more acceptable, but neither attributions nor treatment acceptability predicted treatment experience. However, mothers with higher parenting efficacy viewed the behavioral strategies as more likely to be effective, and this pathway significantly predicted positive treatment experience. Implications for understanding the variables that contribute to parental decision-making and treatment participation for childhood ADHD are considered.

Section snippets

Participants

Mothers who reported that their children had ADHD were recruited through community and school notices, from an ADHD clinic at a children's hospital, and from a registry of families interested in participating in research. Recruitment notices indicated that the research concerned mothers' attitudes and experience with children with ADHD and the treatment of this disorder, and that mothers would receive brief training in behavioral parenting strategies as part of participation. Of 134 families

Data analytic approach

The data were analyzed in six steps. First, mothers' previous treatment experiences and the variables in the model were examined descriptively. Second, data inspection and preliminary analyses were conducted to examine any missing data, multivariate outliers, and the distributions of all scores. Third, an exploratory factor analysis was performed to determine the latent construct of mothers' posttreatment experiences measured from the follow-up telephone interview asking about the mothers'

Discussion

The tested model linking parenting cognitions to treatment experience via intervening treatment beliefs was partially supported. Among mothers of children with ADHD, attributions for ADHD child behaviors were related to beliefs regarding the acceptability of BPT strategies, but neither of these variables predicted the mothers' experiences in using the strategies. Instead, mothers' parenting efficacy was related to their positive treatment experience via their beliefs regarding the likely

Acknowledgment

This research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MOP 77531). We thank the mothers and children who participated, and the research assistants and graduate students who assisted with the research.

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