The Effect of Using Parent's Behavioral Management Training (PMT) Based on Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA( Approach, on the Attention and Concentration, Behavioral Problems, and Socioemotional Adjustment of 6-12 Years Old Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Behavioral disorder is one of the most prevalent psychological disorders among children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). If untreated, this disorder could lead to academic failure and isolation from friends. Available treatments for ADHD include pharmacological and non–pharmacological interventions. In recent decades, psychologists have emphasized the relationship between the child and his caregivers because they believe that the parent's interaction and intimacy form the basis of the cognitive–emotional development of the child and reduce the risk of developing a mental illness. A functional behavioral assessment (FBA) is a set of procedures used to assess and identify environmental conditions that predict and maintain behavior. FBA is a means to determine the purpose of a person's behavior and how the behavior is reinforced in the person's environment. So, this study aimed to assess the effect of using parent's behavioral management training based on the FBA approach on the attention and concentration, behavioral problems, and social–emotional adjustment of 6–12 years old children with ADHD.

The research method was a quasi–experiment with a pretest–posttest design with a control group. The statistical population of the research consisted of all children aged 6 to 12 years with ADHD and their parents (mothers) who were referred to counseling centers and psychological services in Tehran City, Iran, in 2016 to receive medical or clinical treatment. A sample of 40 people was selected using the available method and randomly assigned to two groups (experimental and control). In the experimental group, 20 mothers of ADHD children received 10 behavioral therapy sessions for 10 weeks in the parental behavior management training group. In contrast, the control group did not receive any intervention. For gathering data, we used Conners' Parent Rating Scale–Parents Form (Conners, 1973), the Computerized version of the Continuous Performance Test (VA+PLUS), Students' Compatibility Questionnaire (Sinha & Singh, 1993), and the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001). To analyze the data, descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (multivariate covariance analysis to control the pretest effect) were used at the significance level of 0.05 in SPSS version 22.

The results showed that, after adjusting the effect of pretest scores, there was a significant difference between the experimental group and the control group in the three variables of attention and concentration (p<0.001), behavioral problems (p<0.001) and socioemotional adjustment (p<0.001).

Based on the findings of the research, parents' behavior management training based on the functional behavior assessment approach is effective in increasing attention and concentration, reducing behavioral problems, and improving the socioemotional adjustment of children with ADHD.