(PS12-39) Highly-involved Parenting and It's Associations Among Adolescents with ADHD: Different Associations Based on Sex

Parenting of adolescents requires a delicate balance between oversight, control, and autonomy support that adjusts with child development. When monitoring and control exceeds healthy levels (i.e., making decisions for adolescents instead of scaffolding adolescent decision-making), parenting is thought to inhibit the development of independence. However, some adolescents, such as those with ADHD, may require elevated levels of parental involvement. Few studies have examined how potentially overly-involved parenting functions in this population. One candidate construct is “helicopter parenting,” so named to describe a high level of close monitoring and heavy involvement presumed to be maladaptive for young adults. Very little research has examined this construct in relation to ADHD or adolescents. The current study examined correlations between highly-involved parenting using an adapted Helicopter Parenting questionnaire completed by adolescents with ADHD (n=333; 25% female, 75% male), and 10 mental health and functional outcomes 6 months later. Identified in prior analyses (peer-reviewed manuscript in revision), adolescent report yielded two factors: Intervention (e.g., my parents take over when I have problems with my friends) and Daily Monitoring (e.g., my parents manage my money for me). We also examined correlations of adolescent outcomes with adolescent reports on a well-established parental monitoring measure by Steinberg and colleagues to understand possible discrimination.

Correlations with ADHD/ODD symptoms, impairment, and delinquency were not significant, but significant correlations were found for depression, anxiety, grades, and overall functioning, differing by gender and parenting construct. Among male adolescents, more highly involved parenting (both Intervention and Daily Monitoring, respectively) were related to lower depression (r=-.19, r=-.17, ps< .01) and anxiety scores (r=-.12, p=.08; r=-.17, p< .05); more intervention parenting was also related to worse grades (r=-.14, p< .05), worse general life functioning, marginally (r=-.13, p=.05), and less ODD related impairment, marginally (r=-.19, p=.05). Among female adolescents, however, more highly involved parenting was only related to better general life functioning (r=.30, p< .01; r=.29, p< .05; for intervention and daily monitoring, respectively). Comparatively, parental attempts to monitor their children’s whereabouts and activities was related to lower ODD-related impairment (r=-.19, p< .05) for male adolescents specifically. For female adolescents, attempted parental monitoring was not related to any outcomes.

Overall, the associations between highly-involved parenting and adolescent outcomes are dependent on the adolescent’s gender. Further, the findings suggest that this form of parenting is related to some positive outcomes (e.g., lower depression and anxiety in male adolescents; greater life functioning in female adolescents, as well as some impairments (e.g., worse academic functioning for male adolescents). This is consistent with prior work in young adults that suggested this form of parenting can both beneficial and harmful. More research is needed to further elucidate these associations.