IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v323y2023ics0277953623001958.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Not all diagnoses are created equal: Mothers’ narratives of children, ADHD, and comorbid diagnoses

Author

Listed:
  • Fried, Talia
  • Plotkin-Amrami, Galia

Abstract

Social research examining patients' and caretakers' narration of mental disorders, including ADHD, has been remarkably silent about comorbidity. Centering the theme of uncertainty and the question of what is “at stake” in mothers' mental health narratives of children (Kleinman, 1988), we characterize the patchwork process by which mothers deploy ADHD and comorbid diagnoses to account for key experiences and struggles in their and their child's lives. We found that ADHD had limited purchase in accounting for the emotional and social difficulties that were most urgent in mothers' narratives, despite the medical authority behind the ADHD label, which the mothers mostly accepted. However, mothers remained pervasively uncertain about the relationship between ADHD and comorbid mental health conditions, paralleling debates on the relationship between ADHD, emotion, and comorbidity in the psychiatric and psychological literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Fried, Talia & Plotkin-Amrami, Galia, 2023. "Not all diagnoses are created equal: Mothers’ narratives of children, ADHD, and comorbid diagnoses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:323:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623001958
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115838
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953623001958
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115838?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wilcox, Claire E. & Washburn, Rachel & Patel, Vikram, 2007. "Seeking help for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in developing countries: A study of parental explanatory models in Goa, India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(8), pages 1600-1610, April.
    2. Singh, Ilina, 2011. "A disorder of anger and aggression: Children's perspectives on attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in the UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 889-896, September.
    3. Rasmussen, Pernille Skovbo & Pedersen, Inge Kryger & Pagsberg, Anne Katrine, 2020. "Biographical disruption or cohesion?: How parents deal with their child's autism diagnosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    4. Tan, Catherine D., 2018. "“I'm a normal autistic person, not an abnormal neurotypical”: Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis as biographical illumination," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 161-167.
    5. Hennink, Monique & Kaiser, Bonnie N., 2022. "Sample sizes for saturation in qualitative research: A systematic review of empirical tests," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    6. Gaines, Atwood D., 1992. "From DSM-I to III-R; voices of self, mastery and the other: A cultural constructivist reading of U.S. psychiatric classification," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 3-24, July.
    7. Singh, Ilina, 2004. "Doing their jobs: mothering with Ritalin in a culture of mother-blame," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(6), pages 1193-1205, September.
    8. Jutel, Annemarie & Nettleton, Sarah, 2011. "Towards a sociology of diagnosis: Reflections and opportunities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 793-800, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. O'Connor, Cliodhna & Kadianaki, Irini & Maunder, Kristen & McNicholas, Fiona, 2018. "How does psychiatric diagnosis affect young people's self-concept and social identity? A systematic review and synthesis of the qualitative literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 94-119.
    2. Russell, Ginny & Kelly, Susan E. & Ford, Tamsin & Steer, Colin, 2012. "Diagnosis as a social determinant: The development of prosocial behaviour before and after an autism spectrum diagnosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(9), pages 1642-1649.
    3. Slagboom, M. Nienke & Bröer, Christian & Berg, Jonathan, 2021. "Negotiating ADHD: Pragmatic medicalization and creolization in urban India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    4. Rasmussen, Pernille Skovbo & Pedersen, Inge Kryger & Pagsberg, Anne Katrine, 2020. "Biographical disruption or cohesion?: How parents deal with their child's autism diagnosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    5. Timmermans, Stefan & Tietbohl, Caroline, 2018. "Fifty years of sociological leadership at Social Science and Medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 209-215.
    6. Gülüm Özer & İdil Işık & Jordi Escartín, 2024. "Is There Somebody Looking out for Me? A Qualitative Analysis of Bullying Experiences of Individuals Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(2), pages 1-22, January.
    7. Locock, Louise & Nettleton, Sarah & Kirkpatrick, Susan & Ryan, Sara & Ziebland, Sue, 2016. "‘I knew before I was told’: Breaches, cues and clues in the diagnostic assemblage," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 85-92.
    8. Júlio Belo Fernandes & Diana Vareta & Sónia Fernandes & Ana Silva Almeida & Dina Peças & Noélia Ferreira & Liliana Roldão, 2022. "Rehabilitation Workforce Challenges to Implement Person-Centered Care," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-9, March.
    9. Chikako Ishizuka & Kei Aoki, 2024. "Drivers of sustained brand engagement: cases of long-term customers of hedonic and utilitarian brands in Japan," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(4), pages 979-989, December.
    10. Nettleton, Sarah & Kitzinger, Jenny & Kitzinger, Celia, 2014. "A diagnostic illusory? The case of distinguishing between “vegetative” and “minimally conscious” states," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 134-141.
    11. Hall, Julie & Hawkins, Olivia & Montgomery, Amy & Singh, Saniya & Mullan, Judy & Degeling, Chris, 2022. "Dismantling antibiotic infrastructures in residential aged care: The invisible work of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    12. Hossam Mohamed Elhamy & Maha Abdulmajeed, 2023. "Arab Media Researchers’ Perceptions of Factors Affecting Their Research Problem Selection," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, September.
    13. Alean Al-Krenawi, 1999. "Explanations of Mental Health Symptoms By the Bedouin-Arabs of the Negev," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 45(1), pages 56-64, March.
    14. Hopkins, Lisa & Taylor, Laura & Bowen, Erica & Wood, Clare, 2013. "A qualitative study investigating adolescents' understanding of aggression, bullying and violence," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 685-693.
    15. Dario Krpan & Jonathan E. Booth & Andreea Damien, 2023. "The positive–negative–competence (PNC) model of psychological responses to representations of robots," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(11), pages 1933-1954, November.
    16. Elena Commodari & Valentina Lucia La Rosa & Giuseppina Susanna Nania, 2022. "Pregnancy, Motherhood and Partner Support in Visually Impaired Women: A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-13, April.
    17. Armstrong, David, 2019. "Diagnosis: From classification to prediction," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 1-1.
    18. Valentine, Kylie, 2010. "A consideration of medicalisation: Choice, engagement and other responsibilities of parents of children with autism spectrum disorder," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(5), pages 950-957, September.
    19. Tyson McCrea, Katherine & Wilkins, Kaleigh V. & Richards, Maryse & “Cynthia” Onyeka, Ogechi & Miller, Kevin M. & DiClemente, Cara & Moore, Amzie & Watson, Heather L. & Gillis-Harry, Kassie & Jenkins, , 2024. "“We got to stand up and speak”: Youth in high-poverty, high-crime urban communities of color reflect on their cross-age mentoring program," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    20. Leiter, Valerie, 2024. "Signs and symptoms: Adverse events associated with a sterilization device," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 351(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:323:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623001958. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.