Child Psychopathology and Parenting Stress in Girls and Boys Having Attention Deficit Disorder With Hyperactivity

The present study examined the extent to which girls with attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADDH) differed from ADDH boys, non-ADDH clinic-referred girls, and normal girls in parent ratings of child psychopathology and parenting stress. ADDH girls were rated as being more depressed and hyperactive than ADDH boys. However, there were no significant differences between ADDH boys and girls on any of the 17 scales of the Parenting Stress Index. Comparisons among the three groups of girls indicated that ADDH girls and non-ADDH clinic-referred girls did not differ from each other on most dimensions of psychopathology but were rated as more deviant than normal girls on virtually all such dimensions. Both ADDH and non-ADDH clinic-referred girls posed greater stress for their mothers, and their mothers reported greater family and personal distress than the mothers of normal girls. Only the mothers of non-ADDH clinic girls showed higher ratings of depression, marital distress, and health problems than the normal girls. Ratings of parental stress were associated with both maternal depression and severity of child psychopathology, especially aggression, conduct problems, and hyperactivity. These findings suggest that ADDH girls and boys are quite similar in the nature of their psychopathology and do not differ from each other in the degree of parenting stress associated with their care. Instead, high parental stress is associated with child psychopathology in general, and particularly with externalizing symptoms.