Is Your Parenting Style Increasing Your Child’s ADHD Risk?

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a complex topic and a lot of factors influence its development, including genetics and gene-environment interactions. But a recent study found that there are two additional key factors that seem to have a significant impact on its development: parenting style and child temperament. The two go hand-in-hand in shaping a child’s risk of ADHD—so how do you know which parenting style works best?

Here, we look at the link between child temperament, parenting style, and ADHD and the best ways to help your child manage emotions and ADHD-like behaviors.

Understanding Your Child’s Temperament

A child’s temperament refers to the innate traits they are born with that contribute to their overall personality—i.e., their emotional style and how they adapt to different situations and environments.

The American Academy of Pediatrics lays out nine major characteristics that make up a child’s temperament:

• Activity level: The level of physical activity, motion, restlessness, or fidgety behavior they show in daily activities.
• "Rhythmicity" or regularity: How regular or irregular their pattern is for basic physical functions such as appetite, sleep, and bowel movements.
• Approach and withdrawal: How they respond to a new situation or stimulus, including people, places, foods, and changes to routine.
• Adaptability: How easily they adjust and respond to change or a new situation.
• Intensity: Their energy level when responding to a situation, whether positive or negative.
• Mood: How positive or negative their words and behaviors tend to be.
• Attention span: How well they are able to concentrate or stay with a task, with or without distraction.
• Distractibility: How easily they can be distracted from a task by what's going on around them.
• Sensory threshold: The amount of stimulation it takes (a light amount or more intense amount) for a child to respond.

These characteristics typically place a child into one of three loose temperament categories: easy-going, slow-to-warm, and challenging.

Easy-going temperament

Generally, easy-going kids are happy, active, and positive. They are mildly to moderately intense and easily adapt to new people, schools, and other situations or environments with little anxiety.

Slow-to-warm temperament

Slow-to-warm children are more reserved, observant, and calm. They may take a little more time adapting to new situations and can be shy when making new friends or meeting new people. They become more accepting once they are familiar and comfortable.

Challenging temperament

A challenging or “difficult” child is very active and can occasionally be explosive or intense. They may have trouble adjusting to new situations, such as school, and tend to have more behavioral problems. They are typically fussy babies and are prone to temper tantrums.

ADHD Symptoms in Children

According to the CDC, there are three main types of ADHD that present varying symptoms:

The truth is, it can be tough to distinguish whether your child is showing age-appropriate behavior or legitimate ADHD symptoms. After all, doesn’t every preschooler have trouble sitting still or paying attention?

The key is to look at the duration of symptoms—for example, is a child’s impulsiveness , hyperactivity, or inability to focus at 7 years old the same as it was in toddlerhood? Is it starting to interfere with daily life? While many children tend to grow out of ADHD-like behaviors, others do not, and a doctor can help determine whether or not ADHD is the cause.

The Link Between Child Temperament, Parenting Style, and ADHD

Research has shown a possible correlation between child temperament and ADHD, especially children who are inattentive or show high activity levels and intense emotional reactions . That said, temperament alone is not always a predictor of ADHD since genetics and environmental factors are also at play, including gene-environment interactions that influence parent and child temperament and parenting style.

A longitudinal study recently published in Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology , spanning nearly 20 years, examined the connection between child temperament, parenting style, and ADHD. Researchers began with assessing the temperament of 4-month-old babies, focusing on their responses to new things.

“There was this fascinating group of babies who loved all the new sounds and sights we put in front of them. They would smile, laugh, and reach for them,” explains study co-author Heather Henderson , a Developmental Psychologist and the Professor and Chair of Psychology at the University of Waterloo. “We became really interested in looking at what the developmental consequences would be of what we now call ‘exuberant’ profile.”

An exuberant profile describes babies who show high energy, affect, and excitement. The goal of the study was to observe the developmental outcomes of children with an exuberant profile by looking at parent-reported behaviors, parent-child interactions, and the children’s ADHD symptoms (non-diagnostic) until they reached 15 years old.

Ultimately, they found that high-energy children showed milder ADHD symptoms over time if parents used what they called “directive” parenting. Dr. Henderson explains that the term “directiveness” does not equate to a controlling parenting style—it’s quite the opposite.

“Directiveness correlated with parents being really supportive and providing physical and verbal cues to help guide them,” she says. (For example, helping them take a breath if they’re worked up.) “Directiveness [means] helping your kid when they need it and being sensitive when they are [becoming] dysregulated.”

Which Parenting Styles Help Reduce the Risk of ADHD?

Like many other aspects of parenting, the answer isn’t so straightforward. It's also important to remember that genetics and gene-environment interactions greatly influence your child's risk of developing ADHD. Whether you have an exuberant or more reserved child, there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

Ultimately, it comes down to teaching your child how to regulate their own behaviors, especially ADHD-related behaviors such as impulsivity, inattention, and hyperactivity. By guiding your child from an early age, they are better equipped to handle new, different, or stressful situations and environments later on.

The benefits of scaffolding

Even though there's no one parenting style that can curb ADHD, Dr. Henderson puts forth the overarching idea of “scaffolding.” Think of it like building a house—when you first start, you need scaffolding to hold everything up and give it structure. As the house becomes stronger, the scaffolding is slowly taken away. In the same way, scaffolding in parenting is when parents provide help, guidance, and structure as their child learns new skills , and once they become more confident, you step back and allow them to try things on their own (while still offering guidance when needed).

“The whole idea here is about [the child] learning how to self-regulate and self-manage their behaviors,” explains Dr. Henderson. “It's giving kids cues, physical and verbal, to remind them to hold back, think, reflect, take a moment, and plan what you're going to do. Providing that model of self-regulation through parenting translates into kids who are better able to do that themselves later on.”

For example, say your child is learning how to interact with new friends. Initially, you might coach them on things to talk about, how to have a conversation without interrupting, etc. Over time, you pull back and let them handle social situations on their own, but you’re still there to offer advice if they ask.

“The important part of scaffolding is pulling that support away so they can try doing it themselves,” adds Dr. Henderson. Lighthouse parenting and autonomy-supportive parenting are two styles that incorporate scaffolding, allowing children to learn on their own (and, at times, fail) in order to build resilience, independence, and the ability to take on challenges with confidence.

On the other hand, styles such as helicopter parenting and permissive parenting , while different, can both hinder the child’s ability to cope on their own. Whether you’re hovering constantly or allowing abundant freedom, children lack appropriate boundaries, self-assurance, and the ability to properly regulate emotions and ADHD-type behaviors.

Your Parenting Style May Change—And That’s Okay

It’s important to remember that every child is unique, and what works for one kid may not work for another—and that’s where temperament comes into the mix.

Ultimately, it’s the combination of genetics, gene-environment interactions, child temperament, and parenting style—not just one or the other—that helps shape developmental outcomes, says Dr. Henderson. “Whether it be ADHD symptoms or something else, the best models that we have blend both [temperament and parenting style]. I think that’s the story of developmental psychology because you really can't study one in isolation from the other.”

Regardless, there is one bit of good news that every parent should keep in mind, says Dr. Henderson: “Parents need to remember what the big picture is and that, on average, kids learn how to self-regulate, whether it's through school or through home.” She adds that in her study, reports of ADHD symptoms went down over time, especially from ages 9 to 15. “Kids will learn how to regulate and control their behavior, and I think that's a very promising message.”

The bottom line? Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to stick with one type of parenting style if it doesn’t seem to be working. If your child is showing ADHD-like behaviors, it doesn’t necessarily mean a diagnosis is in their future—it may just mean it’s time to adjust your approach.

So, switch it up if you need to—all you can do is tailor your parenting style in a way that best suits your child’s temperament. “It doesn't mean you're an inconsistent parent,” says Dr. Henderson. “It means that you're parenting in a way that best supports the needs of that child.”

For more Parents news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Parents .