Abstract

Objective: ADHD is one of the most common early-onset neurobehavioral disorders. It is highly heritable and persistent across the lifespan so is likely to co-exist in children and parents within families. In this study, we aimed to take a family-level approach linking parent-child symptom relationships, not only to the level of ADHD symptoms in each parent but also to the level of partner’s symptoms.

Method: In this study, we used a case-control design. Participants of the study group were recruited from the newly diagnosed 100 children with ADHD and their parents and age- gender-matched control group was recruited from an elementary school in Ankara. Parents filled the demographic information form and Adult ADD/ADHD Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and teachers filled the Conners Teacher Scales.

Results: Firstly we found that not only ADHD children parents but also control groups’ have high ADHD symptoms when compared with the population-based studies in this cohort. Secondly, we demonstrated that women/men who have higher ADHD symptoms prefer ADHD marital partners than others. Thirdly, women's hyperactivity/ impulsivity (HI) is associated with all types of husband’s ADHD symptoms, while women's ADHD related features are associated with the husbands’ comorbidities. And finally, children’s ADHD symptom correlations were stronger with fathers than mothers according to teacher scores.

Conclusions: This study showed that ADHD symptoms in families from low socioeconomical status could have different relations between individuals of the families. In future studies, it will be important to measure partner and parental satisfaction when ADHD is a general problem in the family.

Key words: Parental ADHD, partner ADHD, family, low socioeconomic status