Executive Functions and Social Skills of Children with and without Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: The Moderating Role of Parental Emotion Socialization

Appropriate social behaviors and other adaptive skills are the basis for personal and social adjustment. This study explored hypothesized mediation of parental emotion socialization (supportive strategies) between executive functions and social skills of children with and without attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The present study had a correlational design. The statistical population of the study comprised all children aged 7-13 in Tehran with and without ADHD and the sample included 191 students (females: 44%, males: 56%) and their parents. Children with ADHD were selected via convenience sampling method and children without ADHD were chosen through random cluster sampling method. The research instruments included Conners’ Parents Rating Scale-Revised Short Form (CPRS-R: S), Gresham & Elliott’s Social Skills Rating System (SSRS), Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale-Children and Adolescents (BDEFS-CA), and Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES). Hierarchical regression was utilized to analyze the data. Results demonstrated that executive functions and parental emotion socialization could predict social skills in children with and without ADHD (p<0.001). Furthermore, supportive responses of parents to negative emotions of children can moderate the relationship between executive functions and social skills (p<0.001). These findings implicate that parental positive emotion socialization practices somehow compensate for the negative effects of executive dysfunction on social skills in children with and without attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.