Parental Coping and Child care Difficulties in a Sample of Preschool Children with ADHD

The behavioral problems of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are well documented and may place additional strain on child care providers. Children with behavioral problems are more likely to be expelled from preschool. Additionally, parents of children with ADHD report greater parental stress and experience difficulty sustaining employment. Although the relations between these factors are not fully understood, childcare problems may contribute. The current study describes the relations between ADHD, parental coping, and parental employment difficulties associated with childcare problems.

Data from the 2007-2008 National Survey of Children's Health were analyzed using weighted procedures to account for the complex sampling design. Parents reported a diagnosis of ADHD in 1.3% of children 2-5 years of age. Preschoolers with ADHD were no more likely than those without ADHD to be in childcare. Among those in childcare, 25.2% of parents of children with ADHD had to quit a job, not take a job, or greatly change their job because of childcare problems compared to 10.2% of parents of children without ADHD (OR = 3.0, 95% CI: 1.7, 5.3). Mediation techniques were utilized to examine the relations between ADHD, employment problems attributed to childcare, and parental coping, controlling for income and child race. Results revealed employment problems fully accounted for the relations between ADHD and parental coping.

Given the known costs of ADHD-related lost work, estimated at $3.7 billion, it is important to examine factors such as childcare associated with lost work and the emotional impact this may have on families