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Maternal Depression History Moderates Parenting Responses to Compliant and Noncompliant Behaviors of Children with ADHD

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Abstract

Maternal depression and parenting are robust predictors of developmental outcomes for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, methods commonly used to examine parent–child interactions in these families do not account for temporal associations between child and parent behavior that have been theorized to maintain negative child behavior. Moreover, studies examining associations between maternal depression and parenting in families of children with ADHD have not compared mothers who were currently depressed, remitted, and never clinically depressed. This study utilized sequential analysis to examine how maternal reinforcement of compliant and noncompliant child behavior differs as a function of maternal depression history. Within the 82 participating mother-child dyads, 21 mothers were currently depressed, 29 mothers had a lifetime history of depression but were in remission for at least 1 month, and 32 mothers had never been clinically depressed. 24 girls (29.6 %) and 57 boys (70.4 %) between the ages of 6–12 years old (M = 8.7, SD = 2.0) and were diagnosed with ADHD. Results indicated that all mothers were less likely to respond optimally than non-optimally to child compliant and noncompliant behaviors during observed parent–child interactions; however, currently depressed mothers were least likely to reinforce child compliance and responded most coercively to child noncompliance relative to the other groups. Remitted mothers in this sample were more coercive than never clinically depressed mothers, but were more likely to follow through with commands than never clinically depressed mothers. Implications for behavioral parent training programs aimed at skill development for depressed mothers of children with ADHD are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Per inclusion criteria of the larger study, mothers in this group were required to have at least a 10 or greater on the BDI-II. Although mothers were selected on the basis of at least minimal depressive continuous symptoms, we refer throughout this manuscript to mothers who have never met DSM-IV criteria for a mood disorder as Never Clinically Depressed.

  2. Positive parenting was deemed the optimal response compared to other possible responses in accordance with social learning theory which states that behavior will be repeated if reinforced (Chronis et al. 2007).

  3. Commands were deeded the optimal response compared to withdrawing demand (ignore) or becoming increasingly harsh (negative parenting) in accordance with Patterson’s coercive process theory (Patterson 1982).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, 1147 Biology-Psychology Building, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Sharon R. Thomas, Kelly A. O’Brien, Tana L. Clarke & Andrea Chronis-Tuscano

  2. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Yihao Liu

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  1. Sharon R. Thomas
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  2. Kelly A. O’Brien
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  3. Tana L. Clarke
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  4. Yihao Liu
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  5. Andrea Chronis-Tuscano
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Correspondence to Sharon R. Thomas.

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Sharon Renee Thomas, Kelly A. O’Brien, and Andrea Chronis-Tuscano, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park; Tana L. Clarke, Spectrum Behavioral Health; Yihao Liu, Department of Management, University of Florida.

This research is supported by National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) R34 MH073567-01 awarded to Dr. Chronis-Tuscano. During the preparation of this report, Ms. Thomas was also supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) 1F31HD076612-01.

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Thomas, S.R., O’Brien, K.A., Clarke, T.L. et al. Maternal Depression History Moderates Parenting Responses to Compliant and Noncompliant Behaviors of Children with ADHD. J Abnorm Child Psychol 43, 1257–1269 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-014-9957-7

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