Parental symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and maternal responsiveness in mother-child interactions: Implications for child language functioning.

摘要

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) is associated with impairment in many domains of a child's daily functioning, including receptive and expressive language skills. Although there is research evidence suggesting that child AD/HD symptoms contribute to disruptions in the language learning environment, other factors, including adult AD/HD, may also contribute to these difficulties. In this study, maternal symptoms of AD/HD were hypothesized to be associated with lower levels of maternal responsiveness and higher levels of maternal directiveness, which in turn were expected to be associated with child language deficits. An observational research design was used to investigate the association between various child and maternal variables and the outcome variables of interest---maternal Responsiveness, and maternal Directiveness, child receptive language skills, and child expressive language functioning. Stepwise hierarchical regression analyses showed that higher levels of maternal hyperactivity symptoms were associated with increased maternal Directiveness. No relationship, however, was found between maternal AD/HD symptoms and maternal Responsiveness. As predicted, lower levels of child receptive language were associated with higher levels of inattention, while lower levels of child expressive language were associated with higher levels of child hyperactivity-impulsivity. Contrary to expectations, parental AD/HD symptoms were not associated directly with child language functioning. Together, these findings indicate that maternal symptoms of AD/HD are associated with maternal behavior style during mother-child interactions, suggesting that interventions for mothers who have symptoms of AD/HD should be developed and implemented while considering their specific AD/HD symptom presentation. Also suggested by these findings is the continual need for comprehensive language evaluations for children diagnosed with AD/HD.