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It also appears that being a comparably younger mother has a negative influence on the well-being of Canadian mothers, while the young age of the mother is positively moderated by ADHD status. It may be that younger mothers have more energy to deal with the disruptive behaviors associated with ADHD.
There are two important implications of this study. First, the findings from this study conflict with previous research concerning the negative impact of ADHD on maternal well-being. As this research suggests, the ADHD status of the child has little to no association with the well-being experienced by mothers. Second, this research reveals that mothers of ADHD children and mothers of non-ADHD children have comparable levels of well-being and social support. This implies that future research should focus on the strengths and resources that enable mothers to successfully cope with the associated difficulties of raising an ADHD child. In some ways, mothers with ADHD children may be comforted by their child’s diagnosis because it takes away some of the blame and responsibility they may feel for their child’s disruptive behavior despite the stigma associated with the disorder.