Parents of children who are diagnosed with ADHD may face unique challenges. There are many factors that contribute to ADHD and its severity. Therefore, considering how parental stress, ADHD tendencies, and home environment play a role is important in diagnosis, treatment, and support for children with ADHD and their caretakers.

Parental Stress: Higher levels of parental stress and self-stigma has been associated with higher severity of ADHD symptoms in children (Charbonnier et al., 2018; Marumoto et al., 2023; Pardo-Salamanca et al., 2024; Taylor et al., 2018). In addition, parents of children with ADHD were found to have higher levels of stress when compared to parents of children with anxiety disorders (Telman et al., 2017). This parental stress has been correlated with higher rates of bullying in children with ADHD (Taylor et al., 2018).

Parental ADHD Tendencies: Parents who have symptoms of ADHD experience higher levels of stress and children with higher severities of ADHD (Marumoto et al., 2023).

Home Environment: Chaotic household environments are associated with severity of children’s ADHD symptoms, indicating a gene-environment correlation (Agnew‐Blais et al., 2022).

Psychotherapy for parents who have children with ADHD should include an encouragement for more social support (Pardo-Salamanca et al., 2024), a discussion of public- and self-stigmas associated with ADHD (Charbonnier et al., 2018) and increasing parent knowledge of the disorder (Taylor et al., 2018).