An investigation of social skills and attributional styles of children with attention deficit disorder/hyperactivity

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship among parent child-rearing practices, children’s internal/external attributional styles and social skills between Attention Deficit Disorder/Hyperactivity (ADD/H) and non-Attention Deficit Disorder/Hyperactivity (non-ADD/H) children. A review of the literature revealed a need to investigate the social skills and internal/external attributional styles of ADD/H and non-ADD/H children and their relationship to child-rearing practices.

Results indicated group differences between the parents of ADD/H children versus the parents of non-ADD/H children on the dimension of encouragement of independence. It was found that the mothers of ADD/H children reported higher mean scores as compared to mothers of non-ADD/H children. Differences between the parents of ADD/H children versus the parents of non-ADD/H children were found on the authoritarian control dimension. Further analysis indicated that the mothers of ADD/H children reported higher authoritarian control scores than did the mothers of non-ADD/H children. Overall group differences were found on the parental control dimension with parents of ADD/H children having higher combined scores than the parents of non-ADD/H children.

The relationship between parents’ child-rearing practices and their children’s internal/external attributional styles were examined. The results indicated a relationship between the child-rearing dimension of encouragement of independence and the children’s attributional styles for mothers only. No other significant correlations were found on the remaining child-rearing dimensions for mothers or fathers.

Finally, some support was found for the prediction that the children’s ADD/H status and the attributional style (internal/external) of the children were related to their social functioning. The external ADD/H children reported lower overall social functioning, lower appropriate social functioning, and higher negative social skill scores than internal non-ADD/H children.