Hostile Caregiving, ADHD Symptoms, and Child Behavior

ABSTRACT Early caregiving experiences influence the development of children's social behaviors. Caregiving hostility, characterized by anger and rejection toward the child, is associated with higher levels of aggression and lower levels of prosocial behavior. Symptoms of Attention‐Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may underlie the association between hostile caregiving and child behavior because it features executive functioning and self‐regulation deficits that predict social behaviors. This study evaluated prospective pathways from laboratory observations of hostile caregiving at age 4 to teacher‐reported aggressive and prosocial behavior at age 6 via intervening teacher‐reports of ADHD symptoms at age 5. A mediation analysis showed that hostile caregiving eventuated in higher levels of aggressive behavior and lower levels of prosocial behavior via elevated child ADHD symptoms while holding child sex assigned at birth, ethnicity‐race, socioeconomic status, and prior levels of ADHD symptoms, aggression, and prosocial behavior constant.