Parental Psychopathology in Families of Children with ADHD: A Meta-analysis

Research on the strength of the relationship between parental psychopathology and child attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder is mixed. A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the association between parental psychopathology and child attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and to establish the degree and size of the effect. The present study included 85 published and unpublished studies that included a quantitative comparison between parental psychopathology and child attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Parents of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder had higher rates of psychopathology symptoms than parents of children without attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (d = 0.39, 95% confidence interval [0.31, 0.48], p < .001, k = 32). Approximately 16.90% of parents of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder had a mental disorder (95% confidence interval [14.29, 19.89], p < .001, k = 48). Parents of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder had 2.85 times the odds of parents of children without attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder of having a mental disorder (95% confidence interval [1.77, 4.59], p < .001, k = 18), whereas parents of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and co-occurring externalizing disorders had 1.99 times the odds of parents of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder alone of having a mental disorder (95% confidence interval [0.70, 5.66], p = .195, k = 4). Type of manuscript was the only moderator analysis that was statistically significant (Q = 4.30, p = .038, k = 20). Unpublished manuscripts were associated with larger effect sizes in comparison to published journal articles; however, one of the unpublished manuscripts was identified as an outlier. The results suggest that clinicians may want to incorporate interventions targeted at addressing a parent's psychopathology when working with families of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.