Effect of the positive parenting program on parents of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

The efficacy of the positive parenting program for parents of children with behavior problems was confirmed in several studies. Yet, such studies have not been conducted for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Iran, so we decided to evaluate it because of high frequency of the problem. In this clinical trial study, sixty mothers (30 in each control and intervention groups) who had at least one child with clinically diagnosed ADHD and aged between 6 to 12 years old were recruited from the consecutive referrals to the child and adolescent psychiatric clinic of Ruzbeh hospital, Tehran, Iran. The mothers in two groups were matched in some demographic variables. Mothers in both groups completed the battery of self-report questionnaires of study at the beginning and after the 8th session. The discrepancies of pre and post intervention were compared between two groups by SPSS software using repeated measure ANOVA statistical method. Intervention group was associated with significantly lower levels of child behavior problems in Conners’ scale and ADHD rating scale (P<0.001); here, parents reported lower levels of dysfunctional parenting than the control group (P<0.001). The parents in intervention group had significant improvement on measures of depression, anxiety and stress in comparison with the control group (P<0.001). They also showed significant improvement in all items in strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) scale except conduct problems in comparison with the control group (P<0.001). According to the findings of this study, implication of positive parenting program for parents of children with ADHD is recommended to reduce the problem behavior of kids and to improve their abilities.