Affiliate Stigma, Perceived Social Support and Parenting Stress Among Parents of Children and Adolescents With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
Handing parents a ready-made support list at intake can short-circuit the stigma-stress loop in ADHD families.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Panpan et al. (2025) asked 376 parents of kids with ADHD to fill out three short surveys. The surveys measured how much stigma they felt, how much social support they had, and how stressed they felt while parenting.
What they found
Parents who felt more stigma also felt more stress. But the link was not direct. Social support sat in the middle: stigma lowered support, and lower support raised stress. In plain words, stigma hurts most when support is weak.
How this fits with other research
The finding backs up Lovell et al. (2012). That earlier study showed parents of kids with ADHD felt less stress when they had more support from friends, family, or groups.
Liao et al. (2025) go one step further. They show the same stigma-stress link also predicts whether parents stick with treatment. High stress plus stigma means more missed appointments.
Miezah et al. (2020) looked almost the same question in autism parents and found no mediation. The difference is likely the diagnosis. In ASD, support may act as a simple safety net, not a pathway that carries stigma to stress.
Why it matters
You can weaken stigma’s sting in under five minutes. Add a one-page support resource sheet to your parent intake packet. List local ADHD parent groups, online forums, and respite-care numbers. Tell families, “Use these first when stress spikes.” The study says this small step should drop parenting stress by boosting the very thing that sits between stigma and burnout—perceived support.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
PURPOSE: Parents of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience heightened levels of parenting stress. Although previous studies have established associations between affiliate stigma, perceived social support, and parenting stress, the potential mediating role of perceived social support in this relationship remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the relationships among affiliate stigma, perceived social support, and parenting stress, and to explore whether perceived social support mediates the relationship between affiliate stigma and parenting stress in parents of children and adolescents with ADHD. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was used. A total of 376 parents completed the 22-item Affiliate Stigma Scale (ASS), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), and the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF). Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping procedures using IBM SPSS Amos 26.0 were conducted to test the hypothesized mediation model. RESULTS: Affiliate stigma was negatively correlated with perceived social support (r = -0.288, p < 0.01) and was positively correlated with parenting stress (r = 0.464, p < 0.01). Additionally, perceived social support was negatively correlated with parenting stress (r = -0.457; p < 0.01). Perceived social support mediated the relationship between affiliate stigma and parenting stress (β = 0.156, B = 0.209, SE = 0.029, 95% bias-corrected bootstrap CI: 0.104 to 0.219). CONCLUSION: Perceived social support may serve as a protective factor that buffers the negative impact of affiliate stigma on parenting stress. Interventions aimed at reducing stigma and enhancing multi-dimensional social support are recommended for parents of children with ADHD.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1002/14651858.CD003018.pub3