Parental psychopathology in families of children with ADHD: a meta-analysis

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Date
2015
Authors
Cheung, Kristene
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Abstract
There is a large body of literature that examines the association between parental psychopathology and child ADHD. The strength of the relationship varies across studies due to differences between the sample characteristics and methodologies utilized. A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the strength of the association between parental psychopathology and ADHD to review the research findings and to establish the degree and size of the effect. The present study included published and unpublished research that considered a quantitative comparison between parental psychopathology status or symptomatology and child ADHD status or symptomatology. Parents of children with ADHD had higher rates of psychopathology symptoms than parents of children without ADHD (d = 0.39; 95% CI [0.31, 0.48], p < .001, k = 32). Approximately 16.96% of parents of children with ADHD had a mental disorder (95% CI [14.37, 19.91], p < .001, k = 49). Parents of children with ADHD had 2.85 times the odds of parents of children without ADHD of having a mental disorder (95% CI [1.77, 4.59], p < .001, k = 18). Type of publication was the only moderator analysis that was statistically significant (Q = 5.70, p = .017, k = 21). Unpublished reports were associated with larger effect sizes in comparison to published journal articles; however, two of the unpublished reports were identified as outliers. Clinicians and researchers will benefit from the results of this research by developing a better understanding of impact parental psychopathology may have on treatment outcomes.
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Keywords
ADHD, Psychology, Family systems, Parental psychopathology, Meta-analysis, Family factors
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