Parenting Adolescents with ADHD: Maternal and Adolescent Contributions and the Intervening Role of Stress

Compared to parents of typically developing youth, parents of children and adolescents with ADHD tend to engage in fewer positive and more negative parenting behaviors. However, relatively few studies have tested process-oriented models to explain why such deficits in parenting are more common among these parents. In a sample of 107 mothers and their adolescents with ADHD (ages 11–15, mean age 12.6), the current study investigated whether difficulties associated with adolescents’ ADHD predicted greater parenting-related stress and problems in parenting behavior. Adolescents and their mothers completed questionnaires measuring parenting behavior, parental stress, adolescent executive functioning, adolescent ADHD symptoms, and maternal depression. Using path analysis, we tested a model in which mothers’ parenting stress mediated the relation between difficulties associated with adolescent ADHD (adolescent metacognitive and self-regulatory problems, maternal depressive symptoms) and parenting behavior (warmth, psychological control). We found that parenting stress was a significant mediator in several model associations. Findings suggest that parenting stress may be an important mechanism through which ADHD and associated problems predict problematic parenting. Furthermore, our findings suggest that maternal stress and factors that contribute to it (adolescent metacognitive and self-regulatory problems, maternal depressive symptoms) should be specifically addressed during interventions aimed at improving parenting and the parent–child relationship for adolescents with ADHD and their parents.