Cortisol Reactivity and Observed Parenting Among Mothers of Children with ADHD

描述(由申请人提供)：患有注意力缺陷/多动障碍(ADHD)的儿童有严重不良发育后果的风险，包括犯罪行为、抑郁和自杀。父母教养方式和父母心理病态是这一人群长期发展结果的有力预测因素。例如，早期积极的母亲教养方式预示着随着时间的推移，ADHD儿童的行为问题会更少，而母亲抑郁则预示着未来行为问题的水平更高。在ADHD儿童的家庭中，可能与母亲养育方式的个体差异有关的生物标志物知之甚少。此前在非ADHD样本中与育儿有关的一个生物标志物是下丘脑-垂体肾上腺(HPA)轴及其副产物皮质醇。育儿的神经生物学模型表明，皮质醇可能与育儿方式的变化有关，比如在有压力的任务后，母亲皮质醇水平的升高与脾气不好的幼儿的母亲的负面育儿有关。然而，现有的研究未能检查母亲皮质醇反应性与学龄儿童养育方式之间的关系。此外，现有的研究没有涉及患有ADHD儿童的母亲的皮质醇反应和育儿方式。在非ADHD样本中，调节压力反应的困难与母亲养育方式的差异和母亲适应能力差有关，这两者都被发现可以预测ADHD儿童的不良发展结果。此外，母亲对生理应激反应的调节可能对患有ADHD儿童的家庭特别重要，因为养育具有长期挑战性行为的孩子是一种持久的环境应激源。这项拟议的研究旨在扩展现有文献，提供一项关于紧张性任务后母亲皮质醇反应的个体差异与观察到的患有ADHD儿童的母亲的育儿行为之间的关系的实证检验。这项调查可能对理解有不良发育结果风险的儿童家庭中适应性母亲育儿的生物学机制有一定的意义。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are at risk for serious adverse developmental outcomes, including criminal behavior, depression, and suicidality. Parenting and parental psychopathology are robust predictors of long-term developmental outcomes in this population. For instance, early maternal positive parenting predicts fewer conduct problems over time among children with ADHD, whereas maternal depression predicts higher levels of future conduct problems. Little is known about biological markers which may be associated with individual differences in maternal parenting in families of children with ADHD. One such biological marker previously associated with parenting in non-ADHD samples is the hypothalamic- pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis and its byproduct, cortisol. Neurobiological models of parenting suggest that cortisol may be associated with variations in parenting such that elevated levels of maternal cortisol following a stressful task are associated with negative parenting in mothers of toddlers with difficult temperaments. Existing studies however, fail to examine the relationship between maternal cortisol reactivity and parenting in school-age children. Additionally, existing studies do not address maternal cortisol reactivity and parenting in mothers of children with ADHD. In non-ADHD samples, difficulty regulating stress responses is related to variations in maternal parenting and poor maternal adjustment, both of which have been found to predict poor developmental outcomes among children with ADHD. Furthermore, mothers' regulation of physiological stress responses may be particularly important for families of children with ADHD, as parenting a child with chronically challenging behaviors represents a persistent environmental stressor. The proposed study seeks to extend the existing literature by providing an empirical examination of the relationship between individual differences in maternal cortisol reactivity following a stressful task and observed parenting behavior in mothers of children with ADHD. This investigation can have implications for understanding biological mechanisms of adaptive maternal parenting among families of children at risk for adverse developmental outcomes.