Influences of the Family Environment and Parent-Child Relationships on the Executive Functioning of Children with ADHD

The present study examined the relationships between executive functions, family environment, and parent-child relationships in ADHD diagnosed children as compared to non-ADHD diagnosed children. Participants were parents (N = 134) of children diagnosed with ADHD and children not diagnosed with ADHD. As hypothesized, as compared to reports from parents of children not diagnosed with ADHD, parents of children diagnosed with ADHD reported their children as exhibiting greater problems with behavioral control and metacognitive abilities. Compared to control parents, parents of children with ADHD also reported their family environments as less organized and reported more conflict in their homes. In addition, results of Pearson R correlation analyses indicated no significant relationships between family dynamic variables and executive functioning of children diagnosed with ADHD as per parental reports; significant relationships did emerge between executive functioning and the family dynamic variables Cohesion, Organization, Expressiveness, Conflict, and Limit Setting of children with no ADHD diagnosis. These results suggest that the influence of neurobiology and genetics on the executive functioning of children with an ADHD diagnosis is great, yet underscore the importance of family environment on the development of executive functions in children beyond a diagnosis of ADHD.