Internal conflicts in psychoeducation for parents of children with ADHD: discours analysis

BACKGROUND: Psychoeducation plays an important role in how people understand their own psychiatric classification. Since children and parents see psychoeducation as a representation of how their story is understood by the therapist, it affects the therapeutic alliance. Moreover, psychoeducation indirectly shapes the way society understands psychological differences. AIM: To understand how the classification ADHD is given meaning through psychoeducation. METHOD: We analyzed the discourse of 41 written psychoeducational materials from four different countries (USA, UK, the Netherlands and Hungary). RESULTS: We identified five patterns, of which four contained an element of internal conflict. Notably, conflicts were found within a single thematic stance on ADHD as opposed to a conflict between parties with a different vision on ADHD. CONCLUSION: These conflicts cause confusion, misrepresentation and decontextualization of problems. Ultimately, for those diagnosed with ADHD and their parents, this may hamper their ability to understand themselves in the context of their difficulties