Gladiola Musabelliu

I am a doctoral student in the School and Clinical Child Psychology Program at OISE/University of Toronto. Prior to coming to Canada I was a psychologist in Albania where I provided counselling for school-age children, taught therapy courses at the University of Tirana, and strived to develop the field of school psychology in my country. In my doctoral research I am investigating parents involvement in the education of their teens with ADHD. Parental involvement in the education of their children is associated with higher levels of child academic achievement. Throughout their development children and adolescents with ADHD are at high risk for low academic achievement. In a recent study by Maria Rogers, Judy Wiener and their colleagues, examining educational involvement of parents of 8 to 12 year old children with ADHD, it was found that parents felt less competent in helping their children, felt less welcome and supported by their children’s school and teacher, and felt that they had less time and energy to be involved with their children’s school work than parents of typically developing children. Supportive involvement of parents with ADHD, however, was associated with higher achievement in their children. I want to expand this research to investigate the nature of parental educational involvement in relation to adolescents with ADHD (ages 13 – 18). This research is important because it would provide information about various factors that influence parental involvement in the education of adolescents with ADHD. By understanding these factors, it may be possible to identify issues that could be targeted in joint parent/adolescent interventions as well as in teachers’ behaviours and attitudes toward parents of adolescents with ADHD.