Effectiveness of The Kazdin Method for Parenting on reduction of Aggression and Low-Breaking in students with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)

The aimed to determine the effectiveness of The Kazdin Method of Parenting Training on reduction of Aggression, Low- breaking and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) in students.

The study employed a pre-test, post-test and follow-up quasi-experimental design with the control group. The population consisted of all boy first-to-third grade elementary students with ODD in Educational District 3 of Isfahan City. They were selected via the stratified random sampling method so that with the selection of 10 schools done by Educational District 3 of Isfahan in the academic year 2017-2018, 230 boy first-to-third grade elementary students with ODD were listed. From among them, 30 students were randomly selected and divided into two experimental and control groups based on a higher score than the cut-off point on the subscales of non-observance of the law and aggression according to The Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (ACBCL) (1978) and a clinical interviews conducted by school counseling. In this study, the Kazdin parenting intervention program (2005) was administered to the experimental group twice a week for twelve 1.5-hour sessions. The data obtained from questionnaires regarding the two groups in three stages of measurement were analyzed via the repeated measure.

The data from the implementation of questionnaires on two groups in three measurement stages were analyzed using the Repeated Measures ANOVA. The results indicated that the Kazdin Method of Parenting led to a significant reduction in ODD (F=20.57; p=0.001) and also the reduction in subscales of law-breaking (F=29.81; P=0.001), and aggression (F=10.33; P=0.001).

This effect remained constant in the three-month follow-up stage. Since the Kazdin Method of Parenting reduces the ODD, aggression and law-breaking, and also reduces the parent-child conflicts, thus, parents can use it as an effective intervention to reduce symptoms of ODD, aggression, and law-breaking.