Exploring of Moderating Factors of Oppositional Defiant Disorder: A Qualitative Research

In recent years, simultaneously with the high incidence of psychological disorders, the worry about children’s mental health and its influence on their growth and functions has been increased. Children’s behavioral disorder plays an important role in this regard. Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is known as the third prevalent childhood disorder. Since the management of destructive outcomes of ODD disorder can be considered as both treatment and prevention, specialists have placed particular emphasis on the assessment, diagnosis, and early treatment of this psychological disorder. The goal of the present study was to investigate and identify the moderating factors of ODD in children.

Methods and Materials:

 Research data was collected and analyzed through qualitative approach and grounded theory. The study population included all the parents of ODD children (aging 6-12) of pre and primary schools of Isfahan in the year of 2019. In pursuit of this goal, 12 parents meeting the criteria to enter the research were chosen according to the targeted convenience sampling with two questionnaires of Child Symptom Inventory, parent-form (Gadow and Sprafkin, 1994) and General Health Questionnaire (Goldberg, 1972). Data analysis was conducted using Strauss & Corbin (1986).

The obtained findings were as follows: 73 primary codes through open coding, 5 subcategories through axial coding based on subject similarity, and finally 2 categories of parenting and non-parenting factors through selective coding.

A set of parenting and non-parenting factors plays a crucial role in moderating and managing children’s oppositional behaviors.