Parenting and Media Misconceptions
Parenting style is undoubtedly the most criticized cause of ADHD or ADHD-like symptoms in children and has gained its own term, "parent shaming". In debates on alternative medicine treatments, I have found that a majority of the audience feels that ADHD is something that can be “parented out” of a child. In my dataset, 63% of the articles I explored discussed parents as a contributor to childhood ADHD. Ayurveda, an alternative treatment page on Facebook, contained comments from followers on the laziness of parents today, their lack of interest in their child, and their desire to get benefits from their child being on medications. These where three of the ideas I observed repeatedly in my survey of social media debates on alternative medicine (2). The following are examples of the discussion on the Ayurveda Facebook page:
Even educational websites such as ADDitude are targeted at mothers to help support their child. Blogs on this website have parent clickbait titles such as “My son hates how different he is”, or “How I am recovering from my ADD-induced mom guilt”, displaying that this website, while promoted as a tool to educate the public about ADD, is actually drawing in one specific group with their strategic advertising (3). Online magazines such as ADDitude are a perfect representation of how the media may be using fear and anxiety to target parents to think about the possibility of their child having ADD. The For Parents page has different stories posted such as "The Truth About Your Child's Lies", "10 Rewards to Inspire Your Child's Best Behavior", and "Organizing Your Child", suggesting that you can “parent” the disorder out of your child by attending parent training sessions or enrolling your child in a behavioral therapy class (3).
While the website does provide an outlet for parents to learn more information about ADHD and network with other parents, it is important to remember that this website is designed to reach parents for their subscribed viewership.
See if you can find any interesting "clickbait" articles on the ADDitude magazine website.
