Dimension Exploration of Multi-dimensional Model of Parenting of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and its Effect on Parent-Child Interaction: A Mix Methods Research

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Its treatment specifically needs parental training. Most parents of children with ADHD show revengeful and confrontational behavior towards them and use ineffective parenting strategies that may increase the symptoms of this disorder and influence the parent-child interaction.

Regarding the subject of this research, the exploratory mixed methods design was used. First, at the qualitative stage, problems of children with ADHD and problems of their parents were identified and encoded through content analysis and review of articles and books. Then, educational and therapeutic models and programs related to these problems were investigated. Next, the qualitative findings were used to create a parenting model. At the quantitative stage, this model was taught to 10 mothers of children with ADHD over 16 two-hour sessions for two months. Then their parent-child interaction was compared with the control group. Purposive sampling was used at the qualitative stage. The sample was selected by purposive sampling at the quantitative stage and then randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group (10 per group). Child-Parent Relationship Scale (CPRC) (Pianta, 1992) was used as the study tool. Data were analyzed by repeated-measures ANOVA at 95% confidence level with SPSS20.

In content analysis, 10 themes and 50 sub-themes in the area of problems of children with ADHD were identified and then the sessions were organized based on them. Results of quantitative stage showed that the mean difference of the total score and all the sub-scales (conflict, positive relationship, and dependency) was significant at pretest, posttest and follow-up stages (P<0.05), indicating that multidimensional parenting model training can enhance parent-child interaction.

Results showed that multidimensional parenting model training (based on the problems of children with ADHD) is more suitable for the etiology and symptoms of this disorder and it is a mixture of different methods that have been shown to be effective based on different studies, so it can be effective on the enhancement of parent-child relationship.