While many people consider ADD or ADHD to be caused by many ’social factors’, i.e. bad parenting, video games, poor schools, etc., research is clear that the social causes have no merit with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
The first place to start with the cause of ADD or ADHD is genetics. It is a very genetic disorder.
There is term called ‘heritability’, which refers to how genetic a disorder is. As an example - breast cancer is 30% heritable - meaning that about 30% of the possible causes of breast cancer can be attributed to genetics. Asthma is 40% heritable. Height is 80 to 85 percent heritable. Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder is about 80 percent heritable.
That means that ADHD is highly genetic. This research comes from twin studies and other family studies, and shows that ADHD is almost as genetic as height.
Now if genes cause 80 percent that means there is about 20 percent that is not caused by genetics. What are the other causes? When it comes to the non-genetic causes of ADHD, we can call these ‘acquired’ cases. When we look at acquired cases, we can separate these into: Prenatal (i.e. causes that affect the person before birth), and Postnatal (i.e. causes that affect the person after birth).
The Prenatal Causes of ADHD:
These are the acquired causes of Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disroder that occur during the pregnancy.
* Mother smoking during pregnancy: if the mother smokes cigarettes during pregnancy this increases the risk by 2.5 times (so the child is 2.5 times more likely to develop ADHD than if the mother didn’t smoke during pregnancy)
* Mother drinking alcohol during pregnancy: With alcohol during pregnancy, there is the same increased risk - 2.5 times.
* Prematurity: If there is prematurity at birth, there is a general increased risk for ADHD, however if there is bleeding in the baby’s brain there is a 45 percent chance that that individual will have ADHD.
* Increase in pregnancy complications: If there is an overall increase in pregnancy complications there is a non specific increased risk for ADHD.
Interestingly cocaine or crack exposure is not a risk factor for ADHD once you account for smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. Generally speaking a pregnant mother who is using cocaine will also tend to use cigarettes and alcohol.
The Postnatal Causes of ADHD:
These are acquired causes of ADHD that occur after the pregnancy (i.e. after the child is born).
* Head injuries/head Trauma: ADHD can develop after a significant head injury - by significant I mean one that results in loss of consciousness, or a serious concussion
* Brain Hypoxia which means not enough oxygen getting to the brain for a period of time. An example of this could be a near drowning or some other situation like that.
* Brain tumours
* Brain infection.
* Lead poisoning in the preschool years (i.e. before 3 years old)
* Survival from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) - because the chemotherapy itself can lead to brain changes.
The importance of the cause of ADHD is that for many people, when they realize that it is a real medical condition that is caused by medical issues, then they can let go of guilt - which can get in the way of useful treatment progress.
Dr Kenny Handelman
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Comments
Do you agree poor parenting is what causes ADHD?
i do. i have had 6 kids and they are all fine mentally. i think ADHD & Autism and behavior issues are because there is a lack of discipline, kids watch to many things with flashing screens, don’t play outside and parents are to blame.
What do you think?
i dont think they are caused by poor parenting but i agree that poor parenting can not help these conditions
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I think you are wrong. My nephew has ADHD and has the best parents in the world. It has nothing to do with discipline or the parents. Just enjoy the fact that your kids are healthy mentally and physically and leave everyone else’s out of it. I’m sure you’d say that parents are to blame for the mental and behavior issues in adults too, huh?
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I think it can be a combination. It’s not right to assume that all children with ADHD and autism have poor parents.
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I think it is a combination. I do agree poor parenting can be an aspect but I know several kids who after getting off of preserved/boxed crap food were adhd free. I do believe that some children have an actual issue. My nephew for instances gets healthy food(except the crap the school feeds him), fantastic discipline and so forth and still has an issue. But the most part I think can be solved at home with proper attention to every aspect of life.
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autism doesn’t develop from bad parenting. it’s within the brain and it’s physical.
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I concur! I played outside without worrying about germs. I rode my bicycle without a helmet and kneepads. I went roller skating without any safety gear. I went to the restroom at the mall without mom giving me a bottle of germ killer first.
I used my imagination when playing with toys to make the time more exciting. We didn’t have XBox, iPod, computers and such. We had tinker toys, Lego, GI Joe and such that required thought to play with.
Phurface
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Poor parenting and perhaps very poor diet. Children need excellent nutrition for their growing minds and bodies, for some reason parents dont seem to get that…
Now the autism…..I’m not sure about that one. Although I did see an episode of Oprah that had a mom on their that said a speical diet cured her sons autism, it was Jenny Mccarthy.
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I don’t agree on this, esp. with autism. But I agree on saying how some of this is not helped by some parents. However I do agree that alot of kids lately are being diagnosed with ADHD (my step child) Is that the answer to all kids’ problems thesee days?
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YES!!!!THANK YOU, someone else in this world agrees with my husband and I. It is so hard to find people these days that think ADD and ADHD are just a bunch of excuses for poor parenting and kids just being kids.
People think that since their kid might be a little hiper sometimes, they must have a problem. Why don’t you look at what you feed your child? I see kids with "ADHD" that drink more soda in a day than I do in a year…and they wonder why he has a hard time sitting still!?
This world has turned into an amazing place…
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I think that ADHD is a real disorder that has been medically proven. With that in mind, i also think that the disorder could be prevented if children were given activities to keep them busy instead of putting them in front of a TV without any outlet for their energy. Also, kids should be disciplined properly. Too often I hear kids screaming and cursing at their parents. If I had done that when I was a kid, there would be nothing left of me except a spot on the wall.
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What really causes it, is the fact the Feds give school more money for all the kids with problems. Thus, schools are happy to mark every kid they can as having some kind of problem.
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It’s all humbug I tell you.
sometimes or it can make it worse
however i dont think it is always the case
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No. I think you are way off on autism.
As for ADHD, I believe some there are some cases that have to do with parenting and that it is overdiagnosed. But given that you also cited autism, think you need to do more research on the subject. Scientific American had a great special issue with a baby on the cover - swimming I believe - that talked about the development of the infants brain and autism and adhd factors including environmental effects, toxic toys & cleaners, diet, nutrition, and a whole slew of possible causes.
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i agree- most behavior problems are because of parenting styles (unless sexual abuse has happend). But i dot believe autism is a result of bad parenting.
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Just because your kids are ok…doesnt mean anything.
One of my best friends has ADHD and his parents are amazing. Nothing to do with lack of discipline or whatever, its just how some people are.
When you think about it, there is no clear relationship between home life and ADHD. Not all children from unstable or dysfunctional homes have ADHD. And not all children with ADHD come from dysfunctional families.
I dont know that much about Autism…But I agree with Alex…Its to do with the brain, not the environment.
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Not in all cases, but our society is so quick to give anything a name and take some medication for it rather than investigate and seek out alternatives. I imagine, its no different with our children.
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no absolultely not…. my mom had 3 kids…n im the only lucky one with that….
the other 2 are fine…
ADHD and ADD is a mental disorder… there were studies on plp with ADD and ADHD’s brain compared to a normal brain… their were noticeable differences…
when some1 has a disorder that is mental… we think they can just snap out of it… but if some1 has any1 other disorder that we can see… like say diabetes we just accept it…
the brains a complicated organ it has NOTHING to do with how u raise a kid….. the brain is just as likely to have something wrong with as any other organn…
diet can help ADHD…. but to say Autism or ADD/ADHD is by poor parenting is a realli completely inncorrect…. unless your a brain doctor then your acting like alot of other parents who make there child feel bad cuz they have disorder that they can’t control… u dont just tell them to get away from flashing screens and start disciplining them and expect autism ADD/AHDH to go away…
while i will agree that bad parenting doesn’t help at all…. i think you should do some research on these disorders to better understand… the world doesnt seem to respect people at all for these disorders at all..
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I Dont know about poor parenting but maybe, it makes a little sense i think that it all comes down to what your kids are eating.Candy,chips,chocolate,sugar,junk food .and all fast food .everything you buy that is premade i think if everyone would just avoid these things and others this world would be a lot more healthy. Incuding the children."Eat for strength and Not for laziness".
I Had Epilepsy also a brain disorder for along time,
When i got married me and my husband decided to Eat only healthy food, I went off my medication and continued to eat healthy i no longer have seizures. What you eat and how your body is has alot to do with each other.
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The Bible and
My life
I dont believe that ADHD is cause by poor parenting…but i DO believe that poor parenting can make ADHD much worse. I think there is a fine line between being firm and being a pushover, and I think alot of parents dont know how to handle kids like that.
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my nephew Payton Tyler, 8 has ADHD
I have 5 living children and one has ADHD, if it were poor parenting on my part then surely all my kids would have it. And my 6 yr old (the one with ADHD) NEVER plays video games or computer games, has limited tv time, is outdoors very often.
Get your facts straight on what ADHD really is.
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16 weeks pregnant with #7
I would not base my view of ADHD and Autism on just my kids. There is also your genetics, God and the other environmental factors that went in to 6 healthy kids including the free will and mindset of those 6 kids. I would just be thankful that I had healthy children and pray they stay that way.
You do not know the parents of the ADHD children do you? So how do know if they are not disciplining their kids? Do you know the lots of parents with Autistic children? Do you know what kind of people they are? How they discipline? Scientific research is intensive and hard. There are a large number of variables that can affect a child, the discipline a child receives is only one factor. That is why it looks as though not much is being done.
I am not knocking discipline. Many, many children are not given the right kind of discipline and suffer for it. But I would be very careful to assign blame to parents for ADHD and Autism.
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Read psychology books of children
I really doubt it. My parents never really bought that ADHD thing, either. They just thought it was a lack of discipline…and I do think that may be true with at least some of the cases. My parents had 4 kids, though. Me and 3 other brothers. 3 of us were normal and the 4th one bounced off the wall continuously. No amount of punishment could settle him down. It wasn’t too much sugar, either, as my parents were absolute health nuts and sugar was outlawed in our house. Now, he’s going to college and due to the fact that he could not concentrate at all as his mind ran constantly, he finally went to a doctor. He was diagnosed with ADHD, given medication and now he says it’s wonderful that he can finally concentrate in school and his grades are much better. So I guess it really is a physical problem.
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No, those are medical disorders.
Here is what the National Institute for Mental Health has to say about ADHD:
There is little compelling evidence at this time that ADHD can arise purely from social factors or child-rearing methods. Most substantiated causes appear to fall in the realm of neurobiology and genetics.
Sooo…ADHD is hereditary and brains of people with ADHD are structurally different from those without the disorder.
Here’s what the Center for Disease Control says about Autism:
Scientists think that both genes and the environment play a role, and there might be many causes that lead to ASDs. Some harmful drugs taken during pregnancy also have been linked with a higher risk of autism, specifically, the prescription drug thalidomide.
Autism can be detected in children as young as 18 months…before discipline, tv watching habits and outdoor playtime even become issues.
Scientists agree that an unhealthy home environment can make both of these disorders worse, but they are not caused purely by environment.
It’s not really surprising that your kids don’t have these disorders since Autism affects only 1 in 150 kids and between 3-7% of people have ADHD. Not exactly common problems.
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Psych. degree
hummm, wow, for someone who has 6 kids I would expect you to have a little more empathy for children… consider yourself lucky that your kids are healthy. Your "diagnosis" is extraordinarily over-simplistic and without any real understanding of what these disorders are.
As for the ADHD, I agree with the comment about over-diagnosis but I strongly feel that it is a chemical imbalance in the person’s brain as well as genetic pre-dispositions.
As for autism, that is the most shocking. Back in the 1950’s when people had no real idea what autism was doctor’s blamed autism on the "refrigerator mom" - meaning the mother did not love the kid enough - which is absurd and has been proven to be just that.
While there are many theories about autism - and the staggering variety it manifests itself in individuals (from the non-functional like Rainman to the highly functioning types who have Asbergers - ahem, Steven Speilberg, Dan Ackroyd and others - including Albert Einstein) - the reality is we really do not yet understand the cause of these disorders.
Further, from a personal experience a very close friend of mine, who is a Micro-Biologist has two brothers… one is an international investment banker and the other, yep, is severely autistic. The fact that out of three kids - two are brilliant and one is unable to even eat with out assistance is a good example of how ludicrous your theory is.
Thankfully most people do not think like you do and are looking into how to treat and possibly cure these disorders. Yes, there is a good bit of evidence that some of these disorders are actual food allergies and that eliminating dairy and/or wheat gluetins from the kid’s diet will make a significant improvement - the reality is we are still trying to understand the whys and hows of these kids of brain chemical disorders.
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http://www.helpguide.org/mental/adhd_add_causes.htm
http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/default.htm
http://www.autism.com/
http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_whatis_home
ADHD, maybe. Depends on the situation. If kids are fed too much junk, yes. They’ll go off the walls. Adjusting diets to healthy eating diets has worked wonders in many (former) ADHD kids. My brother was very much that way, until my parents put him on the Feingold Diet. My other brother and I had to follow it as well, but not as closely, just because mom was cooking according to the Feingold Diet.
Autism? No, that’s usually detected at about 2 or 3, or so I understand.
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I am shocked at how insulting and ignorant your question is. I also wonder how well adjusted your children are with someone who is so judgmental and bases theories off of nothing. Have you even once read anything about any of these disorders or do you get all of your scientific facts from articles written in 1940? Good lord woman, you are really a jerk for saying things like this. What a big open heart you have for people.
wow.
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Trust me, I WISH my son’s autism was caused by my poor parenting. At least then I would have a prayer it could be corrected or go away.
You want to know what I think? I think you are a complete jacka**. To say something like this shows how completely ignorant you are. Ugh, you disgust me.
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I think that poor parenting is one of the many things that may contribute to ADD and ADHD. Autism, in my opinion, is not linked to poor parenting. It is linked to many things that are dietary and environmental.
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I agree on the ADHD but not Autism.
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nope….i’m totally don’t agreed with you……my son he has ADHD…………..i did all my best just to be the right parent for him but he still got it………..when i was younger i know i have this too…but way back then ADHD didn’t exist yet……….now with all the technology everything had a terms.
well if you have 6kids and they turn out to be fine……good for you…………….but to be honest….you don’t have any right to JUDGE other parent.
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That’s a very judgemental thing to say, and very insulting to those who have children with conditions such as autism and adhd.
I have a friend whose daughter is autistic. There is no poor parenting at all involved. I also know of a couple who deal with a son who has adhd… also very good parents.
It’s a shame you don’t have a child who happens to be autistic or have adhd… or some other challenges. You might have a heart if you did.
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wow….your very rude…….are you sure your kids are not??
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every kids or people are different……so you don’t have the right to judge others!!!!!
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Do you know or even understand what autism is? Autism is diagnosed when a child is still quite young–I believe around two or three. It is an actual mental disorder in the brain. It has nothing to do with bad parenting or good parenting. It is a disorder that cannot be helped by simple things.
Anyway, I can somewhat agree with you on ADHD. I am not saying there aren’t valid kids with great parents who have ADHD but I believe very many kids are misdiagnosed these days. It could be a lack of good parenting, a poor diet, not enough attention at home, or simply confused parents just looking for help or a miracle medication for their child.
I think that some [many] cases of ADHD and ADD could be helped if some parents researched about diet and exercises more. Some parents do take the easy way out. At the same time and on the same note you must realize that ADHD and ADD are actual disorders that many kids DO have who also have amazing parents who do everything in their power to ensure their kids IS healthy.
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Hold on, are you actually saying that autism is caused by children watching too much tv and not playing outside? And a lack of discipline? Wow. Just…wow.
I think you are sorely misinformed on what autism is. And for that matter, ADD/ADHD. They are developmental disorders, not something that is caused by bad parenting. I mean it’s great your children are all "fine mentally" but you cannot base an opinion on that. You do realize that, don’t you?
Do yourself a favor and read up on what these disorders actually are. Here are some websites:
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/adhd/complete-publication.shtml
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since you are being judgmental then I guess you won’t mind me saying that I wonder how good of a parent can you be if :
1. you have been on this website since august of this year, that’s 4 months
2. have gained over 9,000 points by answering 3697 (as of right now) questions…. with a lame 160 chosen as the best answer
3. have asked over 215 questions.
So, just how much time are you wasting each day from your precious 6 children. I would imagine that 6 kids would demand a great deal of your time - I mean you have essentially labeled yourself as an exemplary parent here… right?
Just asking…. I mean, I don’t wanna judge you or anything….
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I think that the over diagnoses of ADHD is poor parenting.
I think a lot of people think of medication, before alternative answers.
when you think about it 30 years ago we didn’t have this problem, but today we feed more sugar and our kids do less.
before we ate good and played outside.
What I don’t understand is why you have put Autism and ADHD in the same group.
I have worked in the mental health field for 12 years and I have spent a lot of time working with kids/adults who have autism and I can tell you it is not in the same family as ADHD.
That is like comparing someone who is deaf, with someone who blind, two different things.
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personally, i had a great childhood. running and playing in the neighborhood, every weekend we spent up in the mountains camping, hiking, and fishing. my cousins and i were never seen hanging around the house…we were always out on bicycles, skateboards, swingsets and jungle gyms…..we were lucky to be allowed a half hour of tv a night right before bed and that was after my parents sat down with me to do homework….and I HAVE ADHD!!!! as a child it was diagnosed as hyperactivity, but in my late teen years it was finally diagnosed properly. even today i have difficulties with it but for the most part don’t need medication for the daily control over the disorder. i also have 1 out of four children that is ADHD. the problem is hereditary….but since there was no diagnosis for ADHD when we were kids, most adults now do not know that they dealt with the same issues when they were young. so it really looks like your theory has just been blown out of the water. since i’ve lived with it all my life i know what my son is feeling and help him to control his problem…..but trust me, it’s not always easy.
he had the best 2nd grade teacher. rather than split up the four children in her class that were add/adhd she put the four of them at the same table and constantly changed the activity for them. as soon as the pencils started rolling across the table she knew they were getting bored and redirected their attention. there is only so much changing their diet can do….removing sugar and anything with red dye in it helps, but only a little. my child takes concerta and is closely watched by his doctor to ensure proper growth. we keep an active lifestyle and spend much time outside unless it’s raining. when it rains we still do not watch much tv….we play board games and cards, we have cooking lessons, we play and wrestle…..so taking away sugar, getting lots of excercise and not allowing a child access to much tv are not the answers…….controlling the chemical imbalance is the answer.
be thankful your kids are all healthy….get off the darn computer and out of bed and go spend time with your 6 healthy children…..
….have a nice day. p.s. check out the link i’ve provided so you can check your facts dear
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http://members.aol.com/addnews/history.html
i dont know about poor parenting but i know in europe they have no clue what ADD or ADHD is. No child is diagnosed with it or put on meds for being an active child. I have been here 3 years and when i mention it to mothers they have no clue what i’m talking about. So it kinda makes u wonder whats up.
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