The Effectiveness of Social Skills Training with Parents on Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms in Children

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of Brackley’s parent training program on reducing symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder among children of the Shiraz city. The present study was a semi-experimental research and a pretest-posttest design with control group was applied. The statistical population consisted of 20 children aged 7 to 12 years who were referred to the counseling center of the Fars province education department due to behavioral problems, had oppositional defiant disorder symptoms based on clinical interview and Child Symptom Inventory (CSI-4; Gadow & Sprafki, 1994), and assigned to experimental (10 subjects) and control (10 persons) groups through convenience sampling. The experimental group mothers were trained according to Barclay’s protocol for 8 sessions. The follow-up phase was performed two months after the intervention. Based on covariance analysis, Brackley’s parent training program has a significant effect on reducing the symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder in children. Also, the follow-up phase findings indicated that Brackley’s parent training was effective in controlling the symptoms of children’s oppositional defiant disorder. The results of this study indicate that, the intensity of oppositional defiant disorder in children can be reduced by teaching social skills to their parents.