The Relationship between Cognitive-Behavioral Skills and Mother-Child Interaction with Symptoms of Conduct Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Children with ADHD

Abstract

Introduction: Nowadays, the main focus of modern researches in the field of ADHD has been on the area of comorbid disorders and reducing their symptoms. In this regard, cognitive-behavioral therapies have tried to reduce the symptoms by using methods such as self-control, problem-solving, and social skills. Given the important role of the family, the present study investigated the pre-assumptions of the treatment by addressing the structural relationships between the social skills, problem-solving skills, and self-control with the symptoms of conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorders in the children with ADHD and the mediating role of the mother-child interaction.

Methods: This study was performed on 104 male students, fourth to sixth grade students of the elementary schools in Yazd City, Iran. In this study, the Child Symptom Inventory (CSI), Child-Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS), Problem-Solving Inventory (PSI), Self-Control Rating Scale (SCRS), and Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY) were used. The results were analyzed with path analysis by SPSS software version 23.

Results: Findings showed that problem-solving skills, self-control skills, social skills, and mother-child interaction can explain 75% of the variance of CD and 71% of the variance of ODD in the model. In another section of the analysis, the findings showed that the effect of problem-solving and self-control skills on the mother-child interaction was significant, but the social skills had no significant effect on the mother-child interaction. Also, the problem-solving variable can affect the CD through the mediating variable in the mother-child interaction, and also has a direct relationship with the current disorder but does not have a significant effect on ODD. The self-control variable in addition to its direct relationship to disorder can affect CD and ODD through the mother-child interaction.

Conclusion: Self-control, problem-solving, and social skills are associated with the symptoms of behavioral disorders in the children with ADHD, and can be used in designing cognitive-behavioral therapy packages, and also the way the mother and child interact, is effective in this type of treatments.

Keywords: Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mother-Child Interaction