Parental Responses to Temper Outbursts in Children With ADHD: The Role of Psychological Factors.

OBJECTIVE: Children with ADHD frequently exhibit temper outbursts (TO). One related factor may be parental responses, such as harsh discipline and accommodation. This study tests the hypotheses that these responses will be associated with greater TO, and parental characteristics of higher anger and lower sense of competence, in children with ADHD.

METHOD: Participants included 79 5- to 9-year-old children with ADHD (77.22% boys). Regressions were used to determine the association between parental psychological factors and responses to TO while covarying for TO frequency, severity, and duration.

RESULTS: Parental anger and sense of competence were not significantly related to any discipline responses after covarying for TO characteristics, although sense of competence predicted spanking at trend-level significance. Both parental anger and sense of competence significantly predicted accommodation over and above TO characteristics.

CONCLUSION: Results underscore the importance of parental anger and sense of competency in predicting parental behavior, specifically parental accommodation.