Effectiveness of Group Interventions based on Parent-child Relationship on Promoting the Mental Health of Parents of Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Abstract

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is one of the most commonly diagnosed disorders that has recently been increasingly considered by psychologists and researchers. Due to its nature, this disorder also affects on mental health of parents, in addition to the child's health. Objective: The present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of group interventions based on parent-child relationship on promoting the mental health of parents of children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, aged 6-11 years. Methodology: In a quasi-experimental study using pre-test and post-test design with three experimental groups of pharmacotherapy, combined (pharmacotherapy 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. All subjects were evaluated by Mental Health Scale in two stages (before intervention and after intervention). Data was analyzed using covariance analysis. Findings: The results showed that the implementation of educational program based on parent-child relationship resulted in a significant increase in the mental health of parents of children with hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder in the combined and family-oriented groups. Conclusion: Interventions based on parent-child relationship with pharmacotherapy (combined method) are effective in increasing the mental health of parents of children with hyperactivity disorder and attention deficit disability; therefore it is suggested that therapists use this method to help this group.