Abstract
The current thesis investigated the effects of parental factors on child social functioning above and beyond child ADHD symptom severity. Prior research indicates that child social functioning decreases with ADHD symptom severity, high parental stress, and increased negative parenting behaviours. Parental factors such as parenting behaviours and stress is likely influenced by an individual’s personality traits. One hundred and sixty children and 159 primary caregivers from archival data were investigated to assess if parent personality, stress, and parenting behaviours had unique associations with child social functioning when controlling for child ADHD symptom severity. Using hierarchical linear regression, we found that higher neuroticism was associated with higher stress, and higher stress plus extraversion were associated with increased negative parenting behaviours, alongside conscientiousness with the inverse. Additionally, higher extraversion was associated with increased positive parenting behaviours. Only higher child ADHD symptom severity was uniquely associated with lower social functioning; no parental factors had significant associations. The current study contributes to mixed findings in the literature, where previous studies indicate parenting factors directly affect child social functioning. The results demonstrate a need for mediation analyses investigating the relationship between parental factors and child social functioning via ADHD symptom severity.