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J Child Fam Stud (2016) 25:3644–3656
DOI 10.1007/s10826-016-0518-2
ORIGINAL PAPER
Relations between Parenting Stress, Parenting Style, and Child
Executive Functioning for Children with ADHD or Autism
Lindsey Hutchison
1
●Michael Feder
2
●Beau Abar
3
●Adam Winsler
4
Published online: 30 August 2016
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract Relations among parenting stress, parenting style,
and child executive functioning for children with disabilities
are not easily teased apart. The current study explored these
relations among 82 children and adolescents age 7–18: 21
with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, 33 with autism
spectrum disorder, and 28 typically developing. Results
indicated that children with attention deficit/hyperactivity
disorder or autism spectrum disorder had more executive
functioning deficits, and their parents reported more par-
enting stress and a greater use of permissive parenting,
compared to typically developing children. In general,
increased parenting stress was associated with greater use of
authoritarian and permissive parenting styles, as well as
more problems with behavior regulation for children.
Authoritarian and permissive parenting styles were asso-
ciated with poorer child executive functioning. Child
diagnostic group (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder,
autism spectrum disorder, typically developing) moderated
relations between parent stress and child functioning, and
between parenting style and child functioning. Implications
for intervention with families of children with disabilities
are discussed.
Keywords Parenting stress ●Parenting style ●ADHD ●
Autism ●Executive functioning ●ASD
Introduction
Raising a child with special needs is a unique experience for
parents. They may find their lives greatly altered by the
addition of a child into the family who requires extra-
ordinary time and attention. While all parents experience
stress while raising children, most parents also experience
an increase in self-efficacy and a decrease in stress as time
goes by, improvements that may not be observed for parents
of children with disabilities (Deater-Deckard 2004). Indeed,
a large body of prior research indicates that parents of a
child with a disability experience elevated parenting stress
compared to parents of typically developing children
(Dabrowska and Pisula 2010; Vitanza and Guarnaccia
1999; Woolfson and Grant 2006). There are many char-
acteristics of children with disabilities that may cause stress
for families (e.g., poor social or language skills, odd
behavior or appearance, developmental delays), as well as
broader contextual factors (e.g., limited social support,
disagreements with spouse or grandparents, difficulty
obtaining appropriate medical/educational resources) that
might be stressful for parents of a child with a disability
(Derguy et al. 2016). However, much research attention has
focused on the parenting stress linked in particular with
children’s behavior problems, self-regulatory skills, and
executive functioning (EF).
Self-regulation is a key component of EF (i.e., higher-
order thinking skills, such as the ability to control, plan/
organize, initiate, and monitor one’s own behavior; Gioia
et al. 2000). Although children with a variety of disabilities
may have some degree of behavioral problems, attention
deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum
disorder (ASD), in particular, are two disabilities that fea-
ture particularly strong, if not definitional, deficits in EF
(Barkley 1997; Winsler et al. 2007). Researchers have often
*Adam Winsler
awinsler@gmu.edu
1
Psychology, George Mason University, Fairfax, 22030 VA, USA
2
Battelle Education, Arlington, VA, USA
3
University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA
4
George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
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