Comparison of anger management and stress coping strategies among mothers of children with or without ADHD

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a pathological disorder in which individuals are observed to be overly active and impulsive. The disorder does not only affect the individuals who are diagnosed with it, but it affects the caregivers of these individuals as well. Mothers are the most affected in this regard. This research investigates skills such as anger control and stress management as it relates to being a caregiver of an indiviual who is diagnosed with ADHD; to this end, this study compares mothers who have children with ADHD and the mothers with normally developing children. This research is conducted between 05.01.2015 and 30.06.2015 at a government hospital on 80 mothers, whose age range between 26 and 52 (Mean Age, 35,50±5,56). Although the mothers who have children with ADHD had low scores on the State-Trait Anger Scale, they were observed to apply differenttypes of strategies to overcome stress. These different strategies, the mothers use to overcome various difficulties caused by ADHD, are considered to contribute to their low scores on the State-Trait Anger Scale. Besides this, factors such as the age of the mother, the age of the children and economical conditions also influence the mothers' stress control and anger management skills. The findings of this research, based on the data analysis, are evaluated in depth in the discussion section and the results of this study provide new insights into future research. Keywords : Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD, Anger Management, Coping With Stress