How Common Is ADHD Among Children of Parents With ADHD?
Like ADHD parent, like ADHD child?
We know, generally, that ADHD does run in families. Maybe you’ve heard about an adult who found out they had ADHD by taking their kid to get diagnosed, only to have the diagnosis turned on them!
The reason ADHD runs in families is that it has a large genetic component. Studies of twins with and without ADHD have estimated ADHD’s heritability at about 70-80 percent. In other words, it appears that about 70-80 percent of the variation in whether someone has ADHD comes down to their genes.
Still, that doesn’t answer another question: if a parent has ADHD, how likely is it that their child will also have ADHD?
A recent meta-analysis led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School sheds some light on that question.
The meta-analysis, or “study of studies,” considered previously published studies of “high-risk children” – children whose parents had ADHD, putting the children at greater chance of having ADHD themselves.
As it turned out, those studies turned up a range of different findings on how prevalent ADHD was among high-risk children. The lowest estimate was that 9 percent of children from parents with ADHD had ADHD themselves while the highest estimate was 57 percent. However, even for the study with the lowest estimate, the 9 percent rate of ADHD was much higher than the rate among children whose parents didn’t have ADHD, which was 2 percent.
Averaging the data across studies, the authors of the meta-analysis found that 40 percent of children whose parents had ADHD also had ADHD themselves.
The researchers caution that just because 40 percent of the children have clinically diagnosable levels of ADHD symptoms doesn’t mean the other 60 percent resemble children whose parents don’t have ADHD.
In fact, previous research has suggested that children of parents with ADHD might have more subsyndromal ADHD symptoms, or ADHD symptoms that aren’t severe enough to be diagnosed. Therefore, the 60 percent of high-risk children without ADHD could still have low-level ADHD-like symptoms, and they could also have elevated risk for other psychiatric conditions.
As far as children of ADHDers who do go on to be diagnosed with ADHD, the 40 percent figure isn’t definitive. It’s an estimate based on the studies that have been done so far.
But it does confirm, pretty clearly, what we knew to expect based on the fact genes influence ADHD symptoms: when parents have ADHD, their children are much more likely to have ADHD as well.
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About The Author
Neil Petersen
Neil Petersen is the editor of ADaptHD. He wrote about ADHD and psychology research at Psych Central for five years, and his writing has also appeared in venues such as ADDitude.
I’ve been struggling to find any help with this, but do you know of any good information about how to open up to parents/family about THEM possibly having ADHD? I’m around 30 and only recently diagnosed and it has been a HUGE eye-opener. I feel it would not only benefit my family to understand me more but it could help them with what I feel might be their own ADHD leanings. The topic of such things has only recently become a “thing” in my relationship with my family so I want to tread cautiously and not cause any defensive/impulsive behavior!
I also want to thank you for your research, I found your article “Treatment-resistant depression might be adhd” and related to it word-for-word. While I was diagnosed two years ago, I was not given much info and therefore didn’t realize the extent of what it meant until I found said article two weeks ago! The knowledge I’ve gained since has been extremely beneficial. It is a relief to finally have explanations and words for what I’ve felt my entire life!
Ah yes, having to break the news to family can be complicated. Theoretically, I think the way to approach this would be to start from a place of talking about your own experience (what you’ve struggled with, how diagnosis has helped you), then mention that ADHD is highly genetic and relate your experiences to things that your family members also struggle with. I say “theoretically” because personally I can’t claim to have had much success in this area. Another idea is to present it as “I can support you and tell you more about my experiences if you ever decide you want to explore whether you might also have ADHD” rather than “I think you should get evaluated for ADHD.”
I really appreciate that, and I’m glad the article resonated with you! I think for ADHDers it’s pretty common that we keep having insights into what ADHD means in our lives long after having been diagnosed. Thanks for reading!