Effectiveness of Self-Instruction Trainig on Symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Academic Procrastination of Adolescents with ADHD

Self-instruction is an appropriate intervnention for children, but its effectiveness on adolescents and problems such as ADHD and procrastration among them has not attracted due attention. The aim of the present study was to investigate effectiveness of self-instruction on ADHD symptoms and academic procrastination of ADHD adolescents.
To this aim, in a pretest-posttest with control group quasi-experimental design, 16 adolescents with ADHD, among clients of psychiatric and psychological service centers of Tabriz City and with regard to inclusion criteria, were selected and randomly allocated into two groups of experiment or control (eight individuals in each group). Child Symptom Index (CSI-4) and Savari’s Academic Procrastination Scale were completed before interventions by all participants and then participants of experiment group received a 10-session individual self-instruction training, while control group received no intervention. After intervention, the insruments were completed by the participants once more.
Covaraince analysis results showed that self-instruction effect is significant on both attention deficit and hyperactivity symptoms resuling in the reduction of these symptoms. Moreover, findings on procrastration showed that participants' scores in deliberate procrastination, physical-mental causing procrastination, and procrastination causing without programming and also total score of procrastination decreased.
Our findings suggest that self-instruction training is an effective and appropriate intervention for hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms and for the reduction of procrastination among adolescents.