How Children With ADHD and Their Parents Managed Schooling During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted not only children, but also their parents, who were thrust into greater educational roles to assist with at-home learning whether they felt competent or not (Parczewska, 2020). Youth with ADHD often experience academic difficulties, and recent reports suggest the pandemic may present some with even greater ADHD-related challenges (Zhang et al., 2020). Further, prior to the pandemic, parents of children with ADHD have reported lower self-efficacy in their ability to help their child academically compared to parents of children without ADHD (Rogers et al., 2009). We conducted analyses to evaluate the relations between child ADHD status and symptom severity, parent perceptions of self-efficacy for helping their child succeed in schooling, and parent experienced at-home schooling difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The present study included 299 parents (220 mothers, 60 fathers, 12 other, 7 not specified) from the United States who completed a Qualtrics-based online survey from late May to early July 2020. The child that parents completed questionnaires about was in first through sixth grade, and either had a diagnosis of ADHD (n=162) or did not have a psychiatric diagnosis (n=137). Child inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms were evaluated through parent-report on the SNAP-IV 26-Item Scale (Swanson et al., 2001). Parent perceptions of self-efficacy for helping their child succeed in schooling during the current year were assessed through self-report on the corresponding scale from the Parent Involvement Project-Parent Questionnaire (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 1992). Parent-report on a subscale of the Home Adjustment to COVID-19 Scale (HACS; Becker et al., 2020) was utilized to assess parental difficulties with at-home schooling over the past two weeks.
Compared to parents of children without ADHD, parents of children with ADHD endorsed a lower sense of schooling self-efficacy (t[297] = -6.23, p < .001), as well as experienced more schooling difficulties during at-home learning (t[297] = 2.73, p = .007). Analyses within the ADHD group found that lower parental sense of schooling self-efficacy correlated with increased parent schooling difficulties (r[160] = -.47, p < .001). Further, a multiple linear regression within the ADHD group showed that parental schooling self-efficacy perceptions predicted parent difficulties with at-home schooling, even after controlling for child ADHD symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity (β = -.33, p < .001). Of note, child inattention symptoms were also a significant predictor (β = .22, p = .04). Additional analyses of qualitative data are currently underway.
These analyses suggest that parents of school-age children with ADHD may feel less confident in their abilities to help their child succeed in schooling, and this is an independent predictor of actual parental difficulties experienced with COVID-19 at-home schooling. Children with ADHD already vulnerable to academic struggles may be particularly in need of effective parental involvement in order to ensure positive child development despite the additional challenge of transitioning to at-home learning. Parental perceptions of schooling self-efficacy could be an important target for helping parents to be able to successfully assist their children with ADHD with schooling throughout this pandemic and beyond.

Authors

• Erica Ferrara, Fordham University
  Presenting Author

• Jill Stadterman, Fordham University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Melanie Silverman, Fordham University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Emily Hirsch, Fordham University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kaley Davis, Fordham University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amy Krain Roy, Fordham University
  Non-Presenting Author