| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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As for the American sample, there are a total of 181 (6.0%) mothers of ADHD children and 2,819 (94.0%) mothers of non-ADHD children, which amounts to a total of 3,000 American mothers.
Contributing Factors of Maternal Well-Being
It is necessary to conceptualize maternal well-being as a multidimensional variable using a combination of factors. For the purpose of this study, maternal well-being is defined by 6 variables of emotional health and measured by the respondents’ perceptions of their well-being based on these variables. For both the Canadian and American data, all of these items are measured using a 4-point scale with responses ranging from “rarely or none of the time” to “most or all of the time.” The use of these variables will aid in making comparisons between the well-being of mothers of ADHD children and mothers of non-ADHD children.
In the NHIS, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) devised and copyrighted by Goodman (1997) was employed to obtain information about a variety of behavioral problems displayed by children and their impact on family functioning. The 25-item questionnaire measures emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactive behavior, peer relationships, and prosocial behavior displayed by the child. For the purpose of this analysis, all of the original items in the SDQ are combined into one multidimensional measure. High scores received on the SDQ are associated with greater behavioral problems. Concordant with the SDQ, a multidimensional measure of child behavior was constructed from 25 of the 39 related variables found in the NLSCY. We can expect that both American and Canadian children with ADHD will score higher on this behavioral measure than non-ADHD children.