Effectiveness of social skills training on self-esteem of students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

The present research aimed to examine the effectiveness of training social skills on self-esteem of students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The study was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design and control group. The statistical population sonsisted of 8 to 12 years old boys in Tehran during 2013- 2014 semester who had attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. A number of 32 of these students were chosen by convenience sampling method and were assigned randomly to experiment and control groups (16 in each). The tools used were Child Behavior Checklist (Achenboach/1978) and Cooper-Smith Self-esteem Inventory (1967). The experiment group was trained using the Social Skills Program in 10 sessions (each lasted one hour). The data were analyzed by analysis of covariance using SPSS software. The results showed that the self-esteem of students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder was increased significantly in exprement group in comparison with the control group (P= 0.01) and this effect lasted for one month after intervention. It is concluded that teaching social skills to students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder can enhance their self-esteem Therefore, preparing schedueled social skills programs and including this program in training programs of these children as complementary education can be useful.