Parents whose own children were ADHD or ODD would respond differently either in one direction or the other with respect to the positive and negative aspects of their communications than parents whose own children were neither ADHD, ODD, or CD. Diagnostic Process and Testing Procedures

The ADHD, ODD, and CD diagnoses were established by a standard rating scale assessment of questionnaires filled out by one parent in each couple as well as by their child's teacher. Diagnosis was made pursuant to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition (DSM-IV) criteria for those disorders. These criteria were used both to identify parents of ADHD, ODD, and CD children and also as the basis for the specific disruptive behaviors displayed by the confederate children during the experiment.

The testing procedures consisted of instructing parent pairs to interact with the confederate children in several capacities: first, they supervised and assisted them in a play task; second, they engaged in a task while the child engaged in an unrelated task; and third, they supervised the child clean up after their play tasks. Subsequently, the parent pairs were instructed to conduct two brief conversations about parenting issues. Afterwards, the parents completed questionnaires and research assistants evaluated their communications.

Parents who interacted with confederate children exhibiting disruptive ADHD/ODD behaviors during their interactions did exhibit more negative communications and fewer positive communications, both during their interactions with the child and also afterwards in their conversations. The second hypothesis was also confirmed. Parents who interacted with confederate children exhibiting typical (i.e. non-disruptive and non-ADHD/ODD behaviors) during their interactions did exhibit fewer negative communications and more positive communications with one another both during and after the confederate interactions. Finally, those parents with ADHD/ODD/CD children of their exhibited more negative communications and fewer positive communications throughout than parents of non-ADHD/ODD/CD children.
The results strongly suggest that the quality of parental communications is affected detrimentally by the responsibilities and experience of interacting with children with ADHD and ODD behaviors. The researchers concluded that if such a short and controlled interaction with ADHD/ODD children is capable of reducing the quality of parental communications, then the results of long-term exposure to disruptively behaving ADHD/ODD children must have a substantial impact in that regard.