Stress, coping behaviors and related-factors in mothers of child with ADHD at Outpatient Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinic, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital

Abstract

Background: At the present time, Thailand has many children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The behavior and problem with these children can affect their mothers, especially mental health problems. If the mothers of children with ADHD have a good coping, they will take care of children and family well.

Objectives: To examine stress and coping behaviors and associated factors of mothers of child with ADHD at the Outpatient Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinic, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital.

Methods: This was a descriptive study. Data were collected from 104 mothers of child with ADHD at the Outpatient Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinic, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. They were asked to complete 4 questionnaires, namely:

1) Personal information questionnaire;

2) ADHD knowledge questionnaire;

3) Suanprung Stress Test-20; and,

4) coping behavior questionnaire. SPSS version 22.0 were used to perform descriptive and inferential statistics to demonstrate for the associated factors of stress and coping behaviors of the sample, and Regression Analysis was done for predictive factors of stress and coping behaviors.

Results: The mothers of ADHD child had level of stress at moderate level (51.9%) and used problem-focused coping behaviors (91.3%). The factors significantly associated with problemfocused coping behaviors were the maternal ages, family income and ADHD knowledge. The predictive factors for problem-focused coping behaviors were family income and ADHD knowledge.

Conclusion: In this study, most of the subjects had level of stress at moderate level. The higher family income and higher ADHD knowledge predicted the problem-focused coping behaviors. Promoting about ADHD knowledge can help mother to use an appropriate coping.