Manual-Based Personalized Intervention for Mothers of Children With SLD/ADHD: Effects on Maternal and Family Resources and Children's Internalizing/Externalizing Behaviors

Objective: This study explored manual-based personalized intervention for mothers of children with SLD and/or ADHD, as possibly contributing to (a) mothers' parenting-related emotional/coping resources, (b) family functioning, and (c) child adjustment, compared with a control group of mothers. Method: Participants were 73 mothers of a child formally diagnosed with SLD and/or ADHD ages 7-17. Mothers were assigned to an experimental (n=40) or control (n=33) group. Short-term intervention utilized a three-stage emotion-cognition-behavior model. Pre-post assessments included maternal affective resources (positive/negative affect, parenting stress), maternal coping resources (general coping strategies, coping specifically with diagnosed child's negative emotions), family cohesion/adaptability, and diagnosed child's externalizing/internalizing syndromes. Results: Significant interactions emerged between group (experimental/control) and time (pre/post) for most study variables. Conclusion: Findings clearly revealed the intervention's significant impact. Only the trained mothers demonstrated significant gains over time for most of the maternal, family, and child indices, whereas the untrained mothers did not.

The Role of Trait Anxiety and Preoccupation With Reading Disabilities of Children and Their Mothers in Predicting Children's Reading Comprehension

This study investigated the relationship between reading comprehension (RC), trait anxiety, and preoccupation with reading disability (RD) in 88 school children in Grades 3 through 5 and in their mothers. Children's trait anxiety had a significant direct negative relationship with RC and also mediated the association between preoccupation with RD and RC. Mothers' preoccupation with their children's RDs had a direct negative association with their children's RC. This association was also mediated through children's trait anxiety. No association was found between mothers' trait anxiety and children's RC. In a final model, RC was explained significantly by children's word reading fluency and trait anxiety as well as by their mothers' preoccupation with their children's RDs. This study extends our understanding of multicomponential models of RC by shedding light on the significant role played by anxiety- and preoccupation-related factors involving both children with RDs and their mothers.