The Relationship Between Psychological Trauma,Parenting Attitude, and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms in Korean Children

Objectives: We examined the association between exposure to psychological trauma, parenting attitude, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms in Korean children. Methods: Fifty eight school-aged children (mean age 10.3±3.13 years) were recruited from community. They were asked about an experience of psychological trauma using an Early Trauma Inventory-Short Form (ETI-SF). Parenting attitude of their mothers was assessed by the Maternal Behavior Research Instrument (MBRI) and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms of children were assessed by the parent version of the ADHD-Rating Scale. Results: Compared with the children without psychological trauma, the children with psychological trauma showed higher scores on the ADHD-Rating Scale. The mothers of the children in the trauma group were more likely to have experienced childhood trauma and showed less affective and more rejecting parenting attitudes compared with the mothers of the children in the non-trauma group. After adjusting for child sex and age, maternal education level, and family socio-economic status, we found that the children's exposure to trauma and the mothers' rejecting attitude had a significant interaction effect on children's hyperactive-impulsive symptoms (F=2.89, p=0.025). Conclusion: Our results suggest that adequate parenting is important for preventing behavioral problems, such as ADHD symptoms, in children who have experienced psychological trauma. Further work using a larger sample and a prospective design is needed to confirm the results of this study.