Effectiveness of Filial Therapy on Symptom Reduction in Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of filial therapy on symptom reduction in children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). It was a pre-test post-test control group design. The subjects were 30 students with ODD who were selected using the convenience sampling method. The parents of these children were randomly assigned in two matched groups, including an experimental group that was under filial therapy training (n=15) and a control group (n=15) without any such training. All subjects completed Children Symptom Inventory-4 (CSI-4) (Gadow and Sprafkin,1994) as pre-test, post-test and follow-up. Data was analyzed using two-factor repeated measures test and paired comparison test. According to the results, filial therapy training resulted in noticeable reduction of ODD symptoms in experimental compared to the control group. In conclusion, filial therapy, as a training method for parents, can be used in treatment of ODD and reduces the symptoms of this disorder.