JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Different factors, such as parental trauma or parenting style, may influence their child(ren)’s medical treatment adherence. Authoritative, or “flexible” parenting is known to develop the most nurturing relationship between parent and child(ren).

Objective:

This study examines the relationship between parental trauma, parenting style, and their child(ren)’s adherence to medical recommendations.

Methods:

Participants were recruited through Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk (mTurk), an online crowdsourcing platform. Participants were 18 years or older, a caregiver for at least one child under the age of 18, and had at least one child who was prescribed medication within the past three months. Parental trauma level was measured via the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) questionnaire and parenting style was measured via the Parental Authority Questionnaire-Revised (PAQ-R). Descriptive statistics, including chi-square tests, t-tests, and adjusted logistic regressions were utilized to determine the association between parental trauma, parenting style, and their child(ren)’s medical adherence.

Results:

A total of 723 participant responses were analyzed. Children who were medically adherent were younger (p=0.016) and of Caucasian ethnicity. Caregiver's mean age was 36.8 years old and 35.4% identified as male. An increase in caregiver’s ACE score was marginally associated with an increased risk of medication non-adherence among their children (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 0.94, P = 0.066).

Conclusions:

Similar to other studies, this study showed that parents of children who adhere to medical treatment practice an authoritative parenting style. Uniquely, it also showed that an increased ACE score was only marginally associated with an increased risk of medical non-adherence.