Comparison of Cognitive Emotion Regulation and Cold and Hot Executive Functions in Female Students with and without Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is a common clinical disorder in children and adolescents. Children and adolescents with ODD have some deficiencies in emotion and cognition. The purpose of this study was to compare cognitive emotion regulation and cold and hot executive functions in female children with and without ODD.

This research was a causal-comparative study. The population consisted of all female middle school students with and without ODD in Shiraz during the 1st semester of 2019- 2020 academic year. The study sample included 60 female students (30 students with ODD and 30 normal students). The participants were selected by random cluster sampling, based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Oppositional Defiant Disorder Rating Scale) ODDRS); Hommersen, Murray, Ohan & Johnston, 2006), Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003), Wisconsin card Sorting Task (WCST; Shahgholian, Azadfallah, Fathi-Ashtiani & khodadadi, 2012) and Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART; Lejuez, 2002) were used to collect the data. The collected data were analyzed by independent t-test and Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) by using SPSS Software.

Results demonstrated that there was a significant difference between students with and without ODD in terms of reappraisal (F=13.76, P<0.01), but not about suppression (P>0.05). Also, there was a significant difference between the groups in terms of some executive functions. Also, Results showed that there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of cold executive function but there was a significant difference between the groups in terms of hot executive function (t= 2.37, P<0.05).

Based on the findings of this study, students with oppositional defiant disorder have problems with emotion regulation. They have also deficits in hot executive function and they are more risk-taking.