Rethinking Measurement of Parenting Stress in ADHD-Affected Families: A Principal Components Analysis of the Disruptive Behaviour Stress Inventory

Abstract

A multitude of research has demonstrated that parents of children with ADHD report higher parenting stress than parents of typically developing children. However, this body of work almost exclusively uses the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) as a measure of parenting stress. The PSI may not be an appropriate measure for parents of children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) because some items overlap with ADHD symptomatology (therefore, scores may be artificially inflated). This study investigated the factor structure of an alternative measure of parenting stress, the Disruptive Behaviour Stress Inventory (DSBI) in 1283 Australian parents of children with ADHD. A principal components analysis was performed which yielded a mathematically and conceptually sound five-component solution for the DBSI. These components were labelled: Routine Disruption, Academic Related Stressors, Behaviour at School, Relational Toll of Disruptive Behaviour and Incidental Stressors. Although further validation is needed, the factored version of the DBSI presented here represents a reliable and clinically useful substitute to the PSI.