Effectiveness of Functional Family Therapy (FFT) in Treatment of Children with ppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Designing an Appropriate Model

Because of high rate prevalence of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) in children referred to counseling clinics and necessity of effectivetreatment models, in this research, an appropriate treatment model hasbeen designed on the basis of theoretical and empirical documentsrelated to specifications of ODD and concepts of FFT. Moreover, efficacyof the designed model has been investigated in the treatment of 6-10years old children with ODD. In this regard, a number of previousresearches (17 on ODD, 19 on FFT) were selected, and the treatmentmodel was designed through logical analysis and integration oftheoretical and empirical documents, and its effectiveness wasinvestigated in a clinical sample consist of 17 children with ODD (8children as experimental group, and 9 as control group). The model wasrevised by taking advantage of the results of experimental intervention, content analysis of counseling sessions and items of Child BehaviorChecklist (CBCL). The final model emphasizes on preparing function ofmisbehaviors through adaptive behaviors and provides parents withsolutions to be able to remove obstacles for learning behavioral skills. Inaddition, it has been trying to generalize the results to the children’srelationship as well as parents’ management in children’s jealousy andmaladjustment. The research indicated that the treatment modelreduced not only ODD, but also symptoms of other disorders (ADHD, anxiety, depression and conduct disorder) in these children.