Steven Kachmar Will Give Talk on “Parental Authority, ADHD, and Delinquent Behavior” Thursday

Steven P. Kachmar, a Ph.D. candidate at Duquesne University who has presented his research at several academic conferences, will speak on “Parental Authority, ADHD, and Delinquent Behavior” 7 p.m. Thursday in the Oechsle Hall auditorium (room 224).

The free event is sponsored by the Psychology Club and the Lehigh Valley Psychological Association. Refreshments will be served.

“This talk will focus on the three parental authority types, potential relationships with delinquent behavioral patterns, and the ADHD diagnosis,” says Kachmar. “Furthermore, directions of future research and the necessity of such research will be discussed.”

Kachmar’s experience has included work at:

• Lehigh Learning and Adjustment School, Schnecksville, providing therapeutic and behavioral management services to youth as part of a Partial Hospitalization Program;
• Boys and Girls Club of Allentown, directing two facilities and eight staff in after-school programming for at-risk youth and managing a caseload of 16 at-risk youth in an after-school program;
• Step-by-Step, Inc., Bethlehem, creating, implementing and supervising social and recreational activities for mentally ill individuals;
• Northampton County Youth Advocate Program, Bethlehem, providing supportive counseling to children between ages of seven and 16;
• Lifepath, Inc., Bethlehem, assisting in implementing programs created for those suffering from developmental disabilities.

A member of Psi Chi, the national honor society for psychology, Kachmar earned a B.S. and M.A. in psychology from Kutztown University in 2000 and 2003, respectively. His master’s thesis investigated the relationship between parenting style and behaviors such as ADHD, illegal drug use, juvenile crime, and sexual permissiveness. He serves as webmaster for the Lehigh Valley Psychological Association.

Kachmar provides the following background for his talk:

Past research has considered the effect that various parenting styles have on the behavior of youth. Results of these studies have been largely inconclusive and unfruitful in determining a link between the three parental authority types and the prevalence of delinquent behaviors in children and adolescents.

Research, with similarly insignificant findings, has also been conducted on the relationship between parental authority and the diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This research considered the potential relationship between the permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative parental authority types identified by Baumrind (1966) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, sexual permissiveness, drug use, and juvenile crime, the latter three collectively classified as delinquent behaviors.

This was accomplished by surveying 132 randomly selected undergraduate students at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. Participants were asked to complete the Parental Authority Questionnaire (Buri, 1991) for both gender parents, and three separate measures pertaining to delinquent behaviors adapted from the Core Alcohol and Drug Inventory (1994), the Crime Codes of Pennsylvania Handbook (2002), and the National Survey of Adolescent Males (1995). An additional question was posed regarding the participant’s diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.