Positive and Corrective Parenting Behaviours in a Cross-Cultural Sample of Parents of Children with ADHD

Mak, M. (University of British Columbia), Hudec, KL. (University of British Columbia), Mikami, AY. (University of British Columbia), & Normand, S. (Université du Québec en Outaouais).

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Cross-cultural studies consistently show that Caucasian parents are more likely to praise and exhibit warmth to their children, while Asian parents are less warm and more verbose. Since these behaviours are often targeted in intervention programs for parents of children with ADHD, it is important to understand how frequently parents engage in these behaviours to determine whether established interventions are universally suitable. Caucasian (n=94) and Asian (n=17) parents (M = 40.89 years, 90.8% female) of children with ADHD participated prior to beginning a parenting intervention. Frequency and elaboration of parental praise, corrective-feedback (CF), warmth, and child closeness were coded during two 5-minute parent-child interactions, before (prep) and after (debrief) watching their children play a game with their friends. We expected to replicate findings of parenting behaviour in non-ADHD samples, indicating more praise, warmth, and closeness and less CF from Caucasian parents. As predicted, Caucasian parents praised and showed warmth significantly more than Asian parents. However, CF was similar for both groups. Across groups, parents exhibited more praise during debrief and more warmth during prep. Interestingly, a significant interaction effect was found for child closeness, such that Caucasian children showed decreased closeness from prep to debrief while closeness remained similar across the two conditions for their Asian counterparts. Overall, parenting behaviours may be different for parents of children with ADHD and may depend on cultural background. Cultural variation found in parenting behaviour demonstrates the importance of developing culturally sensitive intervention plans that address the unique challenges of parents from minority groups.