The Effectiveness of Parent-Based Play-Therapy on Aggression and and Symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder

The onset of the oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) occurs in childhood and preschool age; and if left untreated, it can make many imposed costs on the child, family, and community, so appropriate interventions for children with this disorder are required; therefore, the aim of this study was the effectiveness of parent-centered play-therapy on aggression and symptoms of ODD.

The present study was a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest with a control group. From the statistical population that included all children aged 4-5 years with ODD referred to Setarehshahr Kindergarten and Preschool in District 14 of Tehran in the second six months of 2019, 30 eligible children were selected by convenient sampling method and randomly assigned into two experimental and control group (15 persons in each group). The Gado and Sprafkin (2002) Child Symptoms Questionnaire and the Achenbach and Rescorella (2001) Child Behavior Inventory were used to collect data. Parent-based Play Therapy Educational Intervention (Barton and Landarth, 2006) was presented to the experimental group in 8 sessions of 60 minutes, while the control group did not receive educational training. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 22 and univariate analysis of covariance at the significance level of 0.05.

The results showed that parent-centered play therapy was effective in reducing aggression and syptoms of ODD symptoms (p <0.01)

Parent-centered play therapy provides effective and beneficial strategies to reduce aggression and ODD symptoms; therefore, the use of this model in medical and counseling centers is recommended to promote mental health.