A Comparison of Coping Strategies Used by Mothers of Children With/Without ADHD

Abstract

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most frequent psychiatric disorders of childhood. In fact, having a child with ADHD is correlated with significant increases in the amount of stress that parents experience. It was hypothesized that coping strategies would be different between mothers of children with/without ADHD. The purpose of this study was to determine whether coping strategies differ in the two mother groups. Fifty Iranian mothers of children aged between 6 to 12 participated in this study (25 mothers of children with ADHD and 25 mothers of children without ADHD). For assessing coping strategies, ways of coping questionnaire (WOCQ) by Folkman and Lazarus (1988) was administered on subjects. T. test was used for analyzing data. Our data show only one of the coping strategies- problem solving- employed were significantly different between two groups. This strategy was more commonly used among mothers of children without ADHD.