Bad Kids These Days: Behavior Modification and Parental Perceptions of Children with Behavioral Disorders

Abena Boamah-Acheampong, The College of Wooster

Abstract

The present study investigated the parental perceptions of children with behavioral disorders, looking at three groups of parents; potential parents, parents of children with behavioral disorders, and parents of children without behavioral disorders. Treatment of children with behavioral disorders shows that parental training is very important in the treatment of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder (CD), and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). It is of concern that there is a lack of research about the parental perceptions of children with behavioral disorders, since children with behavioral disorders and their parents report negative stigma towards their situation. It was hypothesized that parents of children with behavioral disorders would be more likely to attribute a child's inappropriate behavior to an internal cause such as a behavioral disorder than bad parenting. Analysis of the data revealed a significant difference between how parents of children with behavioral disorders and parents of children without behavioral disorders attributed a child's behavior. It also revealed that a parent's locus of control correlates positively with how they judge children based upon whether their behavior is caused more externally or internally.