Perceived social support in Chinese parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in a Chinese context: Implications for social work practice

ABSTRACT

This article reports the results of a Hong Kong study (no. of parents = 121) which identified perceived social support (PSS), both overall and four types of support, of Chinese parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and examined the impact of PSS on the interrelationship between the ADHD symptoms and parenting stress. The parents perceived support of their primary social network as more satisfactory than professionals’. Parenting stress of the high PSS group was lower than the low PSS group’s. The PSS-overall, parenting role, and the ADHD symptoms explained a significant variance of parenting stress. The results pave the way to develop a complex social work model in helping.

KEYWORDS:

• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• children
• Chinese context
• Chinese parents
• perceived social support
• social work

Funding

The Research Grants Council of Hong Kong financially supported this research (project ref. no. CUHK449012).

Additional information

Funding

The Research Grants Council of Hong Kong financially supported this research (project ref. no. CUHK449012).