Psychological impact of six weeks of strict home confinement in Spanish families having school-aged children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

After the COVID-19 outbreak, early publications reported worsening symptoms and increased caregiver burden in families having children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In the present study, we launched an online survey to examine the psychological impact of the 41 days of strict home confinement implemented in Spain in families having children with ADHD compared to families having children with typical development (TD). We achieved a representative sample of 190 school-aged children (N =100 and N=90) from 181 families. Respondents were mainly mothers (≈96%). We found that mother reports of hyperactive-impulsive symptoms significantly increased during home confinement regardless of ADHD diagnosis. During the lockdown, we also found that perceived stress significantly increased in mothers of ADHD and TD children, but, unexpectedly, this increase was much more noticeable for the latter group. Moreover, our study suggests that children having parents working in frontline jobs or living in families with higher household conflicts might display increased ADHD symptoms during the lockdown, irrespective of ADHD diagnosis. Our results highlight the need to provide psychological support to families most exposed to the pandemic and target household problems and mothers' well-being at intervention processes, in both ADHD and TD families.