Funcionamiento familiar y ajuste psicológico de niños y adolescentes con trastorno por déficit de atención con hiperactividad
- Alicia Muñoz Silva Director
- Manuel Sánchez García Director
Defence university: Universidad de Huelva
Fecha de defensa: 05 July 2017
- Jesús M. Jiménez Morago Chair
- Ángel Hernando Gómez Secretary
- Yolanda Sánchez Sandoval Committee member
Type: Thesis
Abstract
Society's interest in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has increased in recent years. This increase in interest is due to the persistence of symptoms across the life cycle and its serious impact on social, familial and educational life. This Doctoral Thesis attempts to comprehend the family functioning and the psychological adjustment of children and teenagers with ADHD. Its general objective is to determine how the characteristics and psychological adjustment of children and teenagers with ADHD are related to aspects of the family functioning most relevant from scientific literature, underlined: parental stress, family life, parental educational styles and the social support given to the family. Families with children and teenagers with ADHD in the province of Huelva were chosen as the population of study. In order to access the selection, we contacted with Associations working with Families with children and teenagers with ADHD, Centres of Attention Psychopedagogical and Specialized Orienteering Teams. As a result, 140 families with children between the ages of 6 and 20 years suffering from ADHD, of which 101 were male and 39 female, participated on the study. The data gathered were analysed with the statistic software package SPSS v.20.0. For each instrument used, the reliability coefficient (Cronbach's Alfa) was estimated. The possible differences in the results were analysed in function of gender, age groups (using The T Test for mean comparison); predominance of ADHD (using analysis of variance ANOVA) and results on Conners scale of hyperactivity (using Pearson's correlation coefficient). The correlations among all the variables in the study were also analysed. Finally, we presented linear regression models, where parental stress and parental educational styles were predicted analysed using individual, familial and contextual variables. Among the main conclusions of the research we can highlight, firstly, the strong affectation of the family life when the children have ADHD. However, the severity of ADHD in children, despite being a variable closely related to educational styles or parental stress, has no predictive capacity when other variables such as comorbid behaviour problems are included. On the other hand, family impact variables seem to play an important mediating role between children's and parents' behaviours. Thus, we can affirm that children's behaviours can have an indirect effect on parents’ behaviour insofar as they impact and alter the family's life. On the basis of the research findings, and in agreement with other authors, it is recommended that intervention with families with children with ADHD should not only provide parents with techniques to manage the behaviour of their children, but it should also include other focussed techniques for problem resolution, cognitive restauration or relaxation techniques to reduce psychological and emotional stress. In addition to this, educational practices must be improved in order to achieve an adequate and positive communication in the family.