14 DAY TRIAL // A new scientific study has shown that families with children suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to separate and get divorced by the time the kids turn 8 years old than other families in a control group. The separation rate was at about 22 percent, versus 12.6 percent in families with healthy children.
The results also pointed out that ADHD was not the primary cause of the divorce or separation. Psychologists say that the syndrome could couple with other societal factors, to create tensions and misunderstandings between the spouses. Often, the strain of taking care of children with such attention deficit can be too great for uneducated parents, who live in poor communities and also pertain to a minority, the study reveals.
Factors such as education, age and social behavior influence the parents of ADHD children to a great extent, the researchers say. ADHD complications, such as oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) were also noticed to play a significant role in the outcome of the marriage by the age of 8. Experts say that the levels of stress in parents dealing with ODD children are constantly rising, because the kids always oppose the parents and never do as they are told.
Senior author of the study, William E. Pelham, Jr., Ph.D., professor of psychology and pediatrics at the University of Buffalo, said "Families that 'survive' through that age [8 years old], perhaps because they are low on all of the risk factors, apparently will make it through the rest of the child's childhood." The risk factors Pelham mentioned also include the ethnicity of the family or of the child, the level of education each parent has and the social or antisocial behavior they exhibit.
"With these findings in mind, those who treat children with ADHD and disruptive behavior problems should take note if parents are having marriage problems and try to intervene to prevent the children from going through the trauma of divorce," Pelham concluded.