A qualitative study on corporal punishment and emotionally abusive disciplinary practices among mothers of children with ADHD

ABSTRACTOBJECTIVESThe present study aimed to investigate actual disciplinary behaviours of Turkish mothers’ in the context of relational environment and to investigate ADHD as a risk factor on abusive disciplinary practices.METHODSTotally 120 children (children with ADHD; study group and healthy controls; control group) – and their mothers were interviewed with this aim. The interviews were qualitatively coded and analysed. T-test and Odds ratio were used for descriptive statistics with the aim of supporting the qualitative results.RESULTSAccording to the results of the study, emotionally abusive disciplinary behaviours (81% of all mothers 58% of all children) and corporal punishment (76% of all mothers and 65% of all children) were commonly used as a disciplinary method. Nevertheless, children with ADHD was shown to be at higher risk for both abusive disciplinary practices. The present study has also shown that children with ADHD and their mothers shared less positive activities compared to the control g...