Parental narratives online about ADHD

Abstract

Contemporary parents turn to social media to discuss parental issues. The aim of the present study was to analyze 198 posts on online discussion forums posted by parents whose adolescents had been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or who suspected that their adolescent would meet the diagnostic criteria for an ADHD diagnose. Narrative thematic method was used to explore whether parents used a medical discourse for making meaning of their adolescents’ behaviors. The results showed that parental narratives were predominantly influenced by the medical discourse where adherence to the neurobiological framework provided a sense of coherence that guided parents’ meaning-making of adolescent hardship. Parents used an ADHD diagnosis to reconstruct the personal narrative of the adolescent into a more socially accepted identity. Additionally, parents envisioned a dark future if ADHD went undetected, leading parents to engage in intense battles to obtain diagnoses. Narrators in the present study viewed a responsible parent as a parent who would fight for the right to an ADHD diagnosis and medication on behalf of the adolescent. Social workers should be aware of that parents may on online discussion forums encourage each other to interpret adolescent development within a medical framework.