Mothers' Attributions for Positive and Negative Child Behavior: Associations With Mothers' ADHD Symptoms.

Objective: Previous research has shown that parent attributions for child behavior have important implications on the parent-child relationship. The current study investigates whether mothers' level of ADHD symptoms is associated with their child-responsibility attributions for positive and negative child behavior.
Method: Seventy-nine mothers of 6- to 11-year-old boys participated in this online study. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing their attributions, their ADHD symptoms, and their child's behavior.
Results: All mothers offered more child-responsibility attributions for positive behaviors than for negative behaviors. However, mothers with greater levels of ADHD symptoms did this to a lesser extent, blaming their child relatively more for negative behavior and giving their child relatively less credit for positive behavior.
Conclusion: This is the first study demonstrating the association between mothers' ADHD symptoms and child-responsibility attributions. It is possible that these relatively more negative attributions could be underlying some of the parenting difficulties reported by parents with ADHD.