Personality characteristics of mothers of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as assessed by the Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory.
OBJECTIVE
The current study investigated the personality characteristics of mothers of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI).


METHODS
Fifty mothers (average age of 38.1+/-4.2 years) of children with ADHD not having comorbidity (37 boys, 13 girls; average age of 8.5+/-1.9 years) and 59 mothers (average age of 38.1+/-2.7 years) of comparison children (37 boys, 13 girls; average age of 8.1+/-1.5 years) completed the Korean version of the MMPI. Only mothers whose psychiatric health was verified by the Structured Clinical Interview for axis-I DSM-IV disorders (SCID-IV) were included in current study.


RESULTS
After controlling for maternal age, maternal education level, children's gender, age, and total and verbal intelligence quotient (IQ), the MMPI scores of the mothers of children with ADHD were significantly higher on the depression (D), hysteria (Hy) and psychasthenia (Pt) scales than those of the mothers of children in the comparison group.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggested that even psychologically healthy mothers of children with ADHD alone might be depressed, histrionic and anxious.
Lee
Soon Jeong
SJ
Department of Psychiatry, Seoul Metropolitan Eunpyong Hospital, Seoul, Korea.
Kwon
Jung-Hwa
JH
Lee
Yu Jin
YJ