The effects of life skills' training on social skills and behavioral problems of children 8-10 years old with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD)

The effects of life skills training on social skills and behavioral problems of children 8-10 years old with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) was investigated in this study. This research is a semi-experimental design with pre-post tests and control group. 35 children who had received scores above the cut-off point on oppositional defiant disorder subtest of Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL) and their problems were also confirmed by the Teacher Report Form (TRF), were selected. Then Social Skills Rating System (Teacher Report Form) was administered to their teachers. A sum of 30 child with ODD who had received below scores on social skills subtest of SSRS and their behavioral problems were confirmed in behavioral problems subtest of SSRS were also selected. Subjects were divided into control and experimental groups. Experimental group received life skills' training for 10 weeks, two-hours a week. Upon the completion of the training, SSRS (Teacher Report Form) was administered as a post-test to both groups of teachers. The results were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U and indicated that teachers in the experimental group reported a significant increase in subtests of cooperation (p>0.001), assertiveness (p>0.05), self inhibition (p>0.001) and total score of social skills (p>0.001) and significant decrease in behavior problems scores (p>0.01) of children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), as compared to the control group.