Families of Children with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder

When working with families like Tate's, your job as a teacher is to try to build positive relationships by encouraging parents to reward their children for being successful and by helping them see their children's strengths (Mathur & Smith, 2003). Some parents struggle with their own role in their child's disorder, particularly when they believe that a child is "just like his father." Teachers have to be careful not to blame parents for their children's ADHD but at the same time not to condone inappropriate student behavior that a parent might excuse by saying that the child can't help it.

Families face additional concerns as their children with ADHD reach adolescence and adulthood. Although professionals used to think that children outgrew ADHD as they approached adolescence, it is now clear that for most individuals, ADHD is a lifetime disorder (Barkley, 2006; Minskoff & Allsopp, 2003). Adolescents with ADHD may have more negative moods than other teens. They also may spend more time with friends and less time with family, and they may be prone to tobacco and alcohol abuse (Whalen, Jamner, Henker, Delfino, & Lozano, 2002). Parents and family members are faced with responding to these children's emotions and potentially harmful behaviors (McCleary, 2002; Wolraich et al., 2005).

Finally, teachers should understand the varied family responses to ADHD diagnosis and treatment based on cultural differences (Mattox & Harder, 2007). For example, in one study researchers investigated the perceptions of Mexican, Mexican American, and Puerto Rican mothers toward the behavior of their children with ADHD (Schmitz & Velez, 2003). The researchers found that across these three Latino subgroups, the mothers who were the least acculturated were the least tolerant of their children's hyperactive behavior. In another study, parents from Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic groups in one community were queried about ADHD. Although children from the three groups were identified as having ADHD in approximately the same proportion, African American parents were less likely than Caucasian parents to agree to medication as an intervention, and Hispanic parents were the least likely to agree (Rowland, Umback, Stallone, Naftel, Bohlig, & Sandler, 2002).