Structure of Child Externalizing Behavior and Associated Parental Stress in Family Situations

Abstract

All three cardinal symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) describe impaired stimulus control over behavior. Children with ADHD require more frequent and explicit behavioral cues from others and thereby increase parental stress. Both self-control deficits and parental stress manifest depending on the situation and possess intra-individual variability. Common measures of externalizing behavior and parental stress rarely address this and target generalized impressions instead. Intraindividual differences in externalizing and stressful child behavior can be assessed with a family situations inventory including two rating scales. It rests on the HSQ and supplements the original with a parental stress scale. Method: Parents of children with (male = 204, female = 33; mean = 8.6 years) and without confirmed ADHD (male = 206, female = 155; mean = 7.6 years) took part. They were asked to rate 16 family situations concerning the extent of child externalizing behavior and their own associated stress. Three established scales (CBCL, PSI, BAP) were employed in the clinical sample to determine the external validity of the German HSQ adaption. Results: Both HSQ scales share the same two-factorial structure with satisfying explained variance (56.02–60.38%) and acceptable external and discriminant validity. “Accomplishments” (factor 2) discriminates better than “agreeableness” (factor 1) between children with and without ADHD. Discussion: “Accomplishments” refers to behavior in regularly recurring situations and demands rule following. Parental stress associated with child externalizing behaviors in family situations appears to represent regulation load rather than mental load.