Childhood ADHD and treatment outcome: the role of maternal functioning

BACKGROUND: Relatively little is known about the role of maternal functioning in terms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, attachment style and resilience as predictive factors for treatment outcome when offspring are diagnosed with ADHD. OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether maternal functioning is associated with treatment outcome in children with ADHD. METHODS: The study formed part of a larger naturalistic observational study of children with ADHD. A battery of self-report measures was used to assess selected factors in maternal functioning at the point of referral (baseline data); adult ADHD-symptoms, adult attachment style and adult resilience. Associations between these domains and child treatment response were subsequently examined in a 1-year follow up. RESULTS: Maternal ADHD-symptoms and degree of resilience were significantly correlated to symptom reduction in offspring diagnosed with ADHD. However, the association between maternal attachment style and child treatment response as measured by the ADHD-RS did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first study to consider potential protective factors along with risk factors in maternal functioning and the impact on child treatment outcome. The study contributes to our knowledge of the potential role of maternal functioning in treatment outcome for children with ADHD. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13034-018-0234-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.