The research is devoted to the poorly studied aspect of the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), namely, psychological assistance to parents raising children with the aforementioned disorder.
The paper provides a theoretical generalisation of the psychological aspects of the phenomenon of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children and adults. The modern definition is given, according to which ADHD is a disorder of the development of neuropsychological origin, caused by the complex combinatorial influence of the genetic factor, the nature of the course of childbirth, the socio-psychological atmosphere of a family where the child is brought up. It is emphasized that disorder manifests itself not only in childhood, as it was previously believed, and in the absence of appropriate psychological assistance to the child, the symptomatology of the disorder, somewhat altered, can persist into adulthood.
It is noted that parents of children diagnosed with ADHD seek psychological help for the first time, mainly when the child arrives at school, when the deficits of the disorder affect the child's adaptability in the society.
It has been empirically established that parents of such children are characterised by: distress, asthenia, decreased vitality, increased anxiety, mild depression (especially in mothers). Stressful factors for parents are: a severe degree of disorder in a child; the advantage of hyperactive-impulsive symptoms in the behaviour of a child; the child's tendency to aggressive and oppositional defiant behaviour, obsessive behaviour, riskiness, disorganisation, irresponsible attitude to school duties. It was found that when dealing with stress, parents use coping of proactive, passive and indefinite strategic vectors, the dominant of which is an unproductive passive option.
Unresolved social and psychological problems of parents raising children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder affects their well-being, reduces the effectiveness of their parenting functions and the ability to provide adequate psychological background in a family to raise children. It was revealed that in families with with ADHD, such types of socio-psychological ill-being as conflicts, quarrels, neglect of the child, and the presence of educational confrontations are common.
Three groups of parents were identified according to the criterion of their attitude to the child and their parental responsibilities: “conscious” type, “severely pedantic”, “conniving-indifferent”, which made it possible to individualise psychological and psychotherapeutic process in accordance with a problem.
The author's model of providing parents with psychological assistance has been developed. It is a structural organisation of procedural principles and means of psychological influence on the personal and interpersonal factors of increasing parental resources, which would provide an improvement in their well-being and allow them to create the conditions necessary for the development of a child with ADHD in a family.
It is concluded that the implementation of psychological assistance programs for the family ensures the restoration of parental function, improves the psychological well-being of adults, increases their stress resistance, which, in turn, has a positive effect on environment in a family, behaviour and social adaptation of a child.
