Children's Inattention and Hyperactivity, Mother's Parenting, and Risk Behaviors in Adolescence: A 10-Year Longitudinal Study of Chilean Children.

The children were not diagnosed with ADHD; the measures scored symptom frequency in a community cohort, so the results may not apply to clinic-referred children. The analytic sample was smaller than the original cohort and differed on some infant iron and family background factors. There was no comparable parenting measure at age 5½, so the study cannot prove that child behavior came before parenting. Mothers reported both the child’s early behavior and their own parenting, so their views may have influenced both measures. Adolescent substance use, aggression, and delinquency were self-reported and may be underreported. The sample was from Chilean lower-middle-class families, so cultural norms about child behavior and parenting may limit how well the results apply elsewhere. The links were modest, and some chains across time were weak and not clearly supported. The study did not account for ADHD treatment, family history, paternal parenting, parental substance use, or co-existing health problems.

The authors declared no financial relationships, no support that could have influenced the outcome, and no conflicts of interest.

Do not conclude that parenting caused adolescent risk behaviors or that changing parenting alone would prevent them. The study was observational, did not measure parenting at age 5½, relied partly on mother reports, and the links were modest.