This dissertation consists of two studies that investigated predictors of parenting stress as they relate to child ADHD. Two main questions were explored: what is the magnitude of the association between child ADHD and parenting stress, and what are the parent and contextual predictors of parenting stress? In Study 1, meta-analyses were conducted on the association between parenting stress and ADHD. Predictors comprising child, parent, and contextual factors, and methodological and demographic moderators of the relationship between parenting stress and ADHD were examined. Findings from 44 studies were included. In Study 2, I examined parent and contextual (parental ADHD symptoms, parental education, social support, and marital status) predictors of parent domain parenting stress (parental distress) as a function of teacher-reported child ADHD symptoms. Results confirmed that parents of children with ADHD experience more parenting stress than parents of nonclinical control children, and that severity of child ADHD symptoms are associated with parenting stress. Child oppositionality was only predictive of parental distress when reported by parents (not teachers). A post-hoc analysis in Study 2 showed that child factors did not predict parental distress over and above parent and contextual factors. In Study 1, children’s co-occurring conduct problems and parental depressive symptomatology predicted parenting stress. Little difference in parenting stress was found between mothers and fathers, but lower parenting stress levels were found in samples with higher proportions of girls. Parental ADHD symptomatology was the strongest predictor of parental distress considered in Study 2. Social support was inversely related to parental distress in Study 2, whereas parental age and education were unrelated to parental distress. In Study 2, marital status was significantly correlated with parental distress, but was not a significant predictor in the regression. Marital quality was not a significant predictor of parenting stress in Study 1. The large effects observed for parent level predictors suggests that parent factors (i.e., ADHD and depressive symptoms) are critically important in parenting stress and play a primary role in the experience of elevated parenting stress. Future research should give greater consideration to factors outside of the child in increasing parenting stress.

Reading Disabilities (RD) and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are common neurodevelopmental disorders with evidence for shared genetic etiology. This study examined four predicted neuronal migration genes in RD (DCDC2, KIAA0319, DCDC2B and NEDD4L), and three of these genes in ADHD (DCDC2, DCDC2B and NEDD4L). Putative regulatory elements of DCDC2 (6p) and KIAA0319 (6p) were screened to identify functional risk variants that explain previous association findings. No statistically significant associations were observed in DCDC2. In KIAA0319, variants with predicted regulatory function showed association with RD. This supports the hypothesis that causal RD risk variants in KIAA0319 alter gene expression. DCDC2B (1p), the homolog of DCDC2, showed suggestive evidence for association to ADHD, but not RD. Previous association findings in NEDD4L (18q) could not be replicated. No pleiotropic gene for RD and ADHD was identified. However, together with previous findings, this study supports that neuronal migration may be a common underlying deficit in both RD and ADHD.

This study examined reading comprehension in adolescents with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Forty-five youth with ADHD (26 males, 19 females) and 42 adolescents without ADHD (20 males, 22 females) between the ages of 13 and 18 completed standardized tests of achievement. The results of multiple regression analyses indicated that orthographic and semantic abilities were related to reading comprehension. Both the orthographic (i.e., spelling) measure and the semantic (i.e., oral vocabulary) measure explained unique amounts of variance on the reading comprehension measure. Next, it was found that adolescents with ADHD were significantly more likely to have a Specific Reading Comprehension Disability (S-RCD) than adolescents without ADHD. Last, it was found that adolescents with ADHD and an S-RCD demonstrated poorer performance on academic measures that depend in part on comprehension (e.g., math problem solving) than adolescents with ADHD without an S-RCD.

The aim of the current study was to assess whether providing visual feedback on the written compositions of children with ADHD was an effective method to improve communicative clarity. Participants were twenty children, aged 7 to 9 years with ADHD. Children composed instructions on how to build a figure so that a confederate could reproduce the image based only on the child’s instructions. Participants in the experimental group received feedback on their compositions in the form of the reconstructed figure and were able to then compare the figures side by side on-screen and edit their instructions. Participants who received visual feedback outperformed participants in the no feedback group on the clarity of compositions at post-test, and at a six-week delayed post-test, and were able to apply their learning to transfer tasks. This research makes valuable contributions to understanding the factors that contribute to successful early writing for children with ADHD.

Reading Disabilities (RD) and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are common neurodevelopmental disorders with evidence for shared genetic etiology. This study examined four predicted neuronal migration genes in RD (DCDC2, KIAA0319, DCDC2B and NEDD4L), and three of these genes in ADHD (DCDC2, DCDC2B and NEDD4L). Putative regulatory elements of DCDC2 (6p) and KIAA0319 (6p) were screened to identify functional risk variants that explain previous association findings. No statistically significant associations were observed in DCDC2. In KIAA0319, variants with predicted regulatory function showed association with RD. This supports the hypothesis that causal RD risk variants in KIAA0319 alter gene expression. DCDC2B (1p), the homolog of DCDC2, showed suggestive evidence for association to ADHD, but not RD. Previous association findings in NEDD4L (18q) could not be replicated. No pleiotropic gene for RD and ADHD was identified. However, together with previous findings, this study supports that neuronal migration may be a common underlying deficit in both RD and ADHD.

This study examined reading comprehension in adolescents with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Forty-five youth with ADHD (26 males, 19 females) and 42 adolescents without ADHD (20 males, 22 females) between the ages of 13 and 18 completed standardized tests of achievement. The results of multiple regression analyses indicated that orthographic and semantic abilities were related to reading comprehension. Both the orthographic (i.e., spelling) measure and the semantic (i.e., oral vocabulary) measure explained unique amounts of variance on the reading comprehension measure. Next, it was found that adolescents with ADHD were significantly more likely to have a Specific Reading Comprehension Disability (S-RCD) than adolescents without ADHD. Last, it was found that adolescents with ADHD and an S-RCD demonstrated poorer performance on academic measures that depend in part on comprehension (e.g., math problem solving) than adolescents with ADHD without an S-RCD.

The aim of the current study was to assess whether providing visual feedback on the written compositions of children with ADHD was an effective method to improve communicative clarity. Participants were twenty children, aged 7 to 9 years with ADHD. Children composed instructions on how to build a figure so that a confederate could reproduce the image based only on the child’s instructions. Participants in the experimental group received feedback on their compositions in the form of the reconstructed figure and were able to then compare the figures side by side on-screen and edit their instructions. Participants who received visual feedback outperformed participants in the no feedback group on the clarity of compositions at post-test, and at a six-week delayed post-test, and were able to apply their learning to transfer tasks. This research makes valuable contributions to understanding the factors that contribute to successful early writing for children with ADHD.

Saskatchewan-based pre-service and in-service teachers knowledge of ADHD was assessed and data was collected to accumulate psychometric evidence for the modified K-ADHD (Jerome, Gordon, & Hustler, 1994) scale. Using results from a questionnaire administered to pre-service (n = 100) and in-service (n = 66) teachers, the current study did find a significant difference on the K-ADHD (Jerome et al., 1994) scale between groups. Divergent and convergent validity evidence was found for the K-ADHD (Jerome et al., 1994) for both groups. However, reliability estimates were questionable between in-service (á = .66) and pre-service (á = .82) teachers, possibly due to asymmetric outlier contamination. The evidence found for the K-ADHD (Jerome et al., 1994) scale suggests problems with the psychometrics of the instrument. Future implications and research are discussed.

This dissertation consists of two studies that investigated predictors of parenting stress as they relate to child ADHD. Two main questions were explored: what is the magnitude of the association between child ADHD and parenting stress, and what are the parent and contextual predictors of parenting stress? In Study 1, meta-analyses were conducted on the association between parenting stress and ADHD. Predictors comprising child, parent, and contextual factors, and methodological and demographic moderators of the relationship between parenting stress and ADHD were examined. Findings from 44 studies were included. In Study 2, I examined parent and contextual (parental ADHD symptoms, parental education, social support, and marital status) predictors of parent domain parenting stress (parental distress) as a function of teacher-reported child ADHD symptoms. Results confirmed that parents of children with ADHD experience more parenting stress than parents of nonclinical control children, and that severity of child ADHD symptoms are associated with parenting stress. Child oppositionality was only predictive of parental distress when reported by parents (not teachers). A post-hoc analysis in Study 2 showed that child factors did not predict parental distress over and above parent and contextual factors. In Study 1, children’s co-occurring conduct problems and parental depressive symptomatology predicted parenting stress. Little difference in parenting stress was found between mothers and fathers, but lower parenting stress levels were found in samples with higher proportions of girls. Parental ADHD symptomatology was the strongest predictor of parental distress considered in Study 2. Social support was inversely related to parental distress in Study 2, whereas parental age and education were unrelated to parental distress. In Study 2, marital status was significantly correlated with parental distress, but was not a significant predictor in the regression. Marital quality was not a significant predictor of parenting stress in Study 1. The large effects observed for parent level predictors suggests that parent factors (i.e., ADHD and depressive symptoms) are critically important in parenting stress and play a primary role in the experience of elevated parenting stress. Future research should give greater consideration to factors outside of the child in increasing parenting stress.

Bakgrund: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder är den vanligaste diagnosen hos barn och ungdomar med neuropsykiatriska funktionsnedsättningar. Föräldrar till barn med ADHD lever med dagliga utmaningar, de behöver stöd och information. En förutsättning för detta är att vårdpersonalen har kunskaper om ADHD. Syfte: Syftet var att belysa hur föräldrar till barn och ungdomar med ADHD upplevde mötet med vårdpersonal. Metod: En allmän litteraturstudie genomfördes och nio artiklar granskades, analyserades och inkluderades i studien. Resultat: Föräldrar upplevde bristande kommunikation, och en okunskap om ADHD hos vårdpersonalen. De kände sig frustrerade och misstrodda, och upplevde att de behövde kämpa för att få stöd. En del förälder kände sig avfärdade av personalen, och saknade information. Andra föräldrar kände att vårdpersonalens kunskaper skapade ett lugn och de blev styrkta i sin föräldraroll. Diskussion: Vårdpersonalens brist på kunskap, kommunikation och stöd orsakade ett lidande för hela familjen som redan befann sig i en pressad situation. Genom att inta en stödjande roll kan sjuksköterskan minska oro och stress och därmed öka välbefinnandet hos föräldrarna. Slutsats: Kunskaperna om ADHD är bristfälliga både inom vården och i samhället, de attityder som finns påverkar familjer negativt. Det finns lite forskning inom området, behovet av ytterligare forskning och utbildning är stort.