[Associations with ADHD and parental distress with in play in early childhood]

[Expressed emotion, mother-child relationship, and ADHD symptoms in preschool- a study on the validity of the German Preschool Five Minute Speech Sample]

An inadequate parent-child relationship with hostility, low warmth, and a lack of responsiveness/sensitivity on the part of the primary caregiver often accompanies a child's externalizing disorders and predicts a negative developmental course. The Preschool Five Minute Speech Sample (PFMSS) was developed to enable an economic assessment of components of an inadequate parent-child relationship. In this article we investigate aspects of the validity of the German version of the PFMSS. We analyze whether the PFMSS scales are associated with observed maternal sensitivity, symptoms of attention deficit-/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and maternal depressive symptoms. The sample consists of n = 114 families with 4- to 5-year-old children, whereof n = 65 (57 %) show heightened ADHD-symptoms. The families were recruited from local kindergardens. Maternal sensitivity was assessed by observing the mother-child interaction at home. ADHD, ODD, and maternal depressive ~symptoms were measured by clinical interviews and questionnaires. Most of the PFMSS scales showed the expected associations with maternal sensitivity, ADHD, and ODD symptoms of the child. The German PFMSS thus validly captures significant components of an inadequate mother-child relationship within the context of preschool externalizing behavior problems.