While scientists are yet to determine the cause of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a new study has shed some light on why the symptoms disappear for some and not others.
According to The Washington Post, assistant professor of psychology at Florida International University Erica Musser and her team looked at 515 families.
Over three years, they measured how ADHD symptoms changed among the children with the condition, in the context of their parents’ criticism and emotional involvement.
Approximately half of kids with ADHD saw their symptoms drop off at that time. The test was conducted twice with one year in between.
After analysing the data, it was found that emotional over-involvement did not affect whether the child continued to show ADHD symptoms.
However sustained critical parenting (defined as high levels of negative statements about the child) was linked to the continuation of such symptoms.
Musser said: “Knowing (that) parents may be overly critical and be sending their child down a more negative trajectory can (be used to) help them change their behaviour.”
The authors emphasized that the research is purely observational and there is no way of definitely saying whether the criticism influences the ADHD or vice versa.
There were also some kids in the study, which was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, who had critical parents but saw their ADHD symptoms decrease.
