Family Burden of Raising a Child with ADHD.

Family Burden of Raising a Child with ADHD.
J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2019 Feb 23;:
Authors: Zhao X, Page TF, Altszuler AR, Pelham WE, Kipp H, Gnagy EM, Coxe S, Schatz NK, Merrill BM, Macphee FL, Pelham WE
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to estimate the burden to families of raising a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Data were drawn from a longitudinal sample recruited in western Pennsylvania. When participants were between 14 and 17 years old, parents completed a questionnaire assessing economic burden over the course of raising their children. Domains of economic burden to families included direct costs related to child's behaviors (excluding treatment expenses) and indirect costs related to caregiver strain. On average, participants with ADHD incurred a total economic burden over the course of child development that was more than five times greater compared to youths without ADHD (ADHD = $15,036 per child, Control = $2,848 per child), and this difference remained significant after controlling for intellectual functioning, oppositional defiant symptoms, or conduct problems. Parents of participants with ADHD were more likely to have changed their job responsibilities or been fired and reported lower work efficiency. The current evaluation of economic burden to individual families extends previous estimates of annual societal cost of illness (COI) of ADHD. Our rough annual estimate of COI for ADH...

Source: Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology - February 23, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Zhao X, Page TF, Altszuler AR, Pelham WE, Kipp H, Gnagy EM, Coxe S, Schatz NK, Merrill BM, Macphee FL, Pelham WE Tags: J Abnorm Child Psychol Source Type: research