Assessing Parent Attributions for Child Behavior Using Open-ended Questions

Assessed parent attributions for child behavior using open-ended questions. Sixty-one parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 49 parents of nonproblem children participated. An open-ended, thought-listing question asked following child behavior indicated that parents spontaneously offer causal attributions for their children's behavior. Responses to a second open-ended question asking specifically for attributions for the child behavior indicated that both groups of parents attributed prosocial (PRO) child behaviors more than problem behaviors to internal, controllable, and stable causes or to the external situation and attributed problem behaviors most often to uncontrollable and unstable causes within the child or to factors within the parent. Compared with parents of nonproblem children, parents of children with ADHD were less likely to see themselves as the cause of child behavior and were more likely to mention medication. Analyses indicated that, although attributions elicited by rating scales were related to attributions provided in an open-ended format, each method provided unique information.