Family Functioning in Children With ADHD and Subthreshold ADHD: A 3-Year Longitudinal Study

Bhide, S; Efron, D; Ukoumunne, OC; Anderson, V; Nicholson, Jan; Silk, T; Hazell, P; Gulenc, A; Sciberras, E

doi:10.26181/25255198.v1

Family Functioning in Children With ADHD and Subthreshold ADHD: A 3-Year Longitudinal Study

journal contribution

posted on 2024-02-21, 03:47 authored by S Bhide, D Efron, OC Ukoumunne, V Anderson, Jan NicholsonJan Nicholson, T Silk, P Hazell, A Gulenc, E Sciberras

Objective: To compare family functioning over time for elementary school children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; N = 179) and subthreshold ADHD (ST-ADHD; N = 86), to children without ADHD (Control; N = 212). Method: ADHD was assessed using the Conners 3 ADHD Index and Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children IV. At baseline, 18-month follow-up and 36-month follow-up, parents completed measures assessing a range of family functioning domains. Results: At baseline, the ADHD group reported higher psychological distress, less parenting self-efficacy, less parenting consistency, and more stressful life events; and both groups reported poorer family quality of life (QoL) and greater parenting anger. Trajectories were largely similar to controls (i.e., stable over time), but unlike controls, ADHD and ST-ADHD groups showed lessening parent-partner support and parenting warmth, respectively; and both groups showed worsening aspects of family QoL. Conclusion: Families of children with ADHD and ST-ADHD report persistently poor or worsening family functioning; highlighting a need for tailored psycho-social supports.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study is part of the Children's Attention Project funded by the Australian National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC; Project Grant No. 1008522) and the Victorian Government Operational Infrastructure Scheme. A/Prof. Efron was supported by a Clinician Scientist Fellowship from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Prof. Ukoumunne was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Institute for Health and Care Research or the Department of Health and Social Care. Prof. Anderson was funded by an NHMRC Senior Practitioner Fellowship (No. 607333; 2015-2019). Prof. Nicholson was funded by the Roberta Holmes Chair for Contemporary Parenthood at La Trobe University. A/Prof. Sciberras is funded by an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship in Population Health (No. 1037159; 2012-2015) and an NHMRC Career Development Award (No. 1110688; 2016-2019). Funders had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, and interpretation, nor in the preparation of the manuscript or decision to submit for publication.

History

Publication Date

2024-02-01

Journal

Journal of Attention Disorders

Volume

28

Issue

4

Article Number

10870547231217089

Pagination

13p. (p. 480-492)

Publisher

SAGE Publications

ISSN

1087-0547

Rights Statement

© The Author(s) 2023. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). Request permissions for this article.