The Levels of Inattentiveness/hyperactivity of Young Children as a Function of Mother’s Parenting Stress and Behaviors: Using Mother and Teacher Rating Scores

ABSTRACT

This study sought to examine the level of inattentiveness/hyperactivity of young children as rated by mothers and teachers as a function of mother’s parenting stress and parenting behaviors. The subjects were 119 mothers and their inattentive/hyperactive, but undiagnosed young children aged 4-5. The mothers and teachers rated children’s inattentiveness/hyperactivity using Conners’s Rating Scale and the mean of the scores was used to divide the children into two groups according to a cut-off score. The results were that mothers with more inattentive/hyperactive children showed higher parenting stress and more rejective, inconsistent, overprotective and non-affective parenting behaviors. There were also differing characteristics in the correlations between parenting stress and parenting behaviors among the two groups. For mothers with inattentive/hyperactive children above the cut-off point, parenting stress had the biggest correlation with inconsistent parenting behaviors, but with non-affective parenting behaviors for the counter mothers. The significant correlation between parenting stress caused by children’s problems and non-affective parenting behaviors appeared only in the case of mothers of children below the cut-off point. The implications for parent education and multiple ratings for young children’s inattentiveness /hyperactivity were also discussed.Key words : Level of inattentiveness/hyperactivity, Parenting stress, Parenting behavior, multiple rating