Comparison of the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Play Therapy and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy on Executive Functions and Parent-Child Interaction in Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is one of the most common behavioral disorders in children and adolescents. Genetic and environmental factors play equal roles in clinical manifestations of ODD. This disorder is very common in the pre-school and primary school children and significantly affects their academic performance and adaptation. This research aims to compare the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral play therapy and parent-child interaction therapy on the executive functions and parent-child interaction of children with ODD.   

This study was a quasi-experimental research with pretest-posttest control group design. The study population included all the 7 to 9-year old girls with ODD who were studying at grades one to three of the primary school in Tonekabon city during the academic year 2019-2020. Through random two-stage sampling, 39 students were selected as the study sample and then randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group (13 students per group). The first experimental group received eight 90-min sessions of play therapy and the second experimental group underwent twelve 90-min sessions of parent-child interaction training; while, the control group received no intervention. Child Symptom Inventory (Gadow & Sprafkin, 1994), Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (Gioia et al., 2000), and Parent-Child Relationship Survey (Fine et al., 1983) were used for data collection. Data were analyzed by Analysis of Covariance.    

The results of the present study showed that there is a difference between the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral play therapy and parent-child interaction therapy on behavior regulation skills (F=52.23, P=0.001) of children with ODD; But between the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral play therapy and parent-child interaction therapy on metacognitive skills (F=11.71, P=0.001), positive emotions (F=6.77, P=0.005), identification (F=11.06, P=0.018), no disorientation in relation to the role (F=4.86, P=0.001), and communication (F=6.49, P=0.005), there is no difference.

It seems that by improving social cognition and facilitating self-regulation and behavioral inhibition in children, both therapies are effective on the executive functions and parent-child interaction in children with ODD.