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Abstract
Children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience academic underachievement. To understand why children with ADHD have academic difficulties, it is important to explore the role of motivation and mindsets, as these factors are linked to academic success. It is also crucial to determine how parenting strategies may relate to these factors in children with ADHD. According to Self-Determination Theory (SDT), an autonomy supportive rather than controlling parenting style is most facilitative of children’s motivation. Yet, current ADHD interventions recommend that parents provide immediate rewards, which according to SDT is a controlling strategy that undermines intrinsic motivation. Additionally, how parents respond to the academic setbacks of neurotypical children relates to children’s intelligence mindsets. Given that children with ADHD experience more academic setbacks than neurotypical children, parents’ responses to setbacks may be especially important to children’s mindsets and academics. The current study drew upon SDT and implicit theories (or mindsets) to investigate the relations among parenting style (autonomy supportive versus controlling), children’s motivation and mindset, and children’s academic engagement and achievement.
To make comparisons across groups, both children with ADHD and neurotypical children were included in the current study. Participants were 184 children (96 ADHD, 88 control), aged 9 to 14, and their parents. Participants were recruited through flyers posted in clinics, public venues, and online parenting groups. Flyers included a link for interested families to access the online survey. First, parents completed questionnaires on their children’s symptomatology, homework performance, and grades. Next, children completed questionnaires on their parents’ parenting styles and ways of responding to their academic setbacks as well as their own mindsets, motivation, and engagement.
Results showed that children with ADHD had lower identified and intrinsic motivation and endorsed more fixed mindsets than children without ADHD. Regressions and SEM models suggested that parental autonomy support was associated with greater autonomous motivation for both groups. There were positive relations between autonomous motivation and children’s engagement and homework performance for all children, but relations were significantly stronger for children with ADHD. A positive relation was also present between autonomous motivation and children’s grades, but only for children with ADHD. Thus, when parents were more autonomy supportive, children with and without ADHD engaged in tasks for more autonomous reasons, and in turn, all children had greater engagement and homework performance. Only children with ADHD had higher grades. Additionally, when parents provided more adaptive versus maladaptive responses to children’s academic setbacks, both children with and without ADHD endorsed a more growth mindset, and in turn, both groups of children had greater homework performance and engagement.
Findings highlight the importance of autonomy supportive, rather than controlling, parenting strategies for the academic motivation, mindsets, and achievement of all children, especially children with ADHD. Thus, it is important that parenting interventions as well as interventions in school settings focus on utilizing autonomy supportive strategies and supporting parents and teachers in providing autonomy support, both generally and when children face academic setbacks. Doing so will allow all children, especially those with ADHD, to achieve greater academic success and engagement.
