Comparison of Theory of Mind, Attention Maintenance and Sympathy in Students with and Without Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Background and Oppositional defiant disorder is one of the most common, disruptive behavioral disorders. The main purpose of this study is to compare theory of mind, attention maintenance and sympathy in male students with Oppositional Defiant Disorder and normal students of first grade of high schools in Ahwaz.
This study was cross-sectional analysis. To analysis of data, multivariate ANOVA (MANOVA) has been used. The sample included 100 students (50 normal students and 50 students with oppositional defiant disorder) were selected from all male students of first grade of high schools in Ahwaz using random cluster sampling method. Instruments in this study included Achenbach Youth Self Report Questionnaire (1991), Reading Mind through the Eyes Test (Baron Cohen, 2001), Continuous Performance Test (Baron Cohen Sympathy Scale, 2003) and structured clinical interview.
Results of this study showed that there is significant difference between students with oppositional defiant disorder and normal students in terms of theory of mind, attention maintenance and sympathy (p These results highlight the importance of developing and improving the theory of mind, empathy and attention maintenance in children with oppositional defiant disorder.