The effectiveness of Group Interventions based on Parent-child Relationship on Promoting Child-rearing in parents of Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, aged 6-11 years

Parent-child relationship and communication and child-rearing practices are one of the most important family factors that affect the mental health of the family. Objective: The present study was conducted in order to investigate the effectiveness of family-oriented psychological interventions (parent-child-based education) on improving child-rearing in parents of ADHD children aged 6-11 years old. Methodology: In a quasi-experimental study using pre-test and post-test design with three experimental groups of Drug therapy, combined (drug therapy and family-oriented intervention) and family-oriented, mothers of 30 children with ADHD disorder were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling method; these subjects were randomly selected from the educational districts of Tehran. The combined and family-oriented groups were trained in a parent-child relationship group for 10 sessions and the drug therapy group received only medication. Subjects were assessed by Alabama parenting scale in two stages (before intervention and after intervention). Data was analyzed using covariance analysis. Findings: The results of the present study showed that the implementation of a parent-child-based educational program resulted in a significant improvement in child-rearing methods of parents with ADHD children in both the combined and family-oriented group. Conclusion: Parent-child relationship education is effective in improving child-rearing methods in parents of ADHD children; so, it is suggested that therapists use this method to help parents of this particular group of children.