Investigating the effects of parents training on decreasing behavioral problems of children suffering from attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common behavioral disorders among childhood. Due to the problems of ADHD children, different treatment methods such as medication and behavior therapy is used to treat these children. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of training the parents on reducing behavioral problems of children suffering with ADHD. This research is performed by experimental test (pre- post test) as well as cluster sampling method. 32 parents of students with ADHD among the elementary schools (boys) in Tehran were selected. 18 parents were placed in testing group randomly and they were trained in 10 two- hour sessions and 14 parents were placed in control group without any training. The data was collected through the form of Rutter (1967) before and after the sessions in both groups. After 45 days, two tests were performed in both groups for follow up. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and covariance analysis methods. The mean behavioral disorders before and after training of parents was 7.61 and 6.32, respectively. Meanwhile, there was no decrease of problems in control group. On the other hand, a significant decrease in behavioral problems of children was noted among those suffering from ADHD in testing group (P<0.001). The findings indicated that training of parents causes the reduction of behavioral problems among children suffering from ADHD.