Effectiveness of Parenting Therapy on Behavioral Problems of Girl Students with Oppositional Defiant Disorder

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the Parenting Therapy on the behavioral problems (anxiety/depression, aggression, and social functioning) in girls with oppositional defiant disorder. A semi-experimental design with pre and post-test and a control group was applied. The study population was all female school  students of the Aligudarz city. By a purposeful sampling method 43  school students with likely  oppsitional defiant disorder  were selected and 30 with higher scores in the Achenbach’s  Oppsitional Defiant Disorder Rating Scale )ODDRS) were selected and their mothers classified into two (n=15) groups randomly (experimental and control groups). The experimental group received 10 sessions of  Eyberg (1997) Parenting Training  Package during 10 sessions, while no intervention made on the control group. Three subscales of (anxiety/depression, aggression, and social functioning) from 8 Akhenbakh  subscales were performed in the pre-test and post-test stages and the collected data were analyzed applying a Multivariate Analysis of Covariance. The study results showed that parenting training could significantly reduce the average scores of the student’s anxiety/depression average scores in the experimental group than control. No significant effects were found for aggression and social functions. It could be concluded that the Parenting Therapy improves the anxiety/depression symptoms in these children and is recommended in management of anxiety/depression in the  oppositional defiant disorder girl students.