Multiple family therapy for Chinese families of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): treatment efficacy from the children’s perspective and their subjective experiences

Abstract

This paper reports the results of our study that assessed the treatment efficacy of multiple family therapy (MFT) from the perspective of participating Chinese children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and identified their subjective experiences. Forty‐three children with ADHD in the experimental group (EG) completed a forty‐two‐hour MFT, whilst forty‐five children with ADHD in the control group (CG) had attended two writing classes scheduled three months apart that were similar to those of the MFT. Data from the outcome study were gathered using standardized questionnaires and data from the qualitative study were drawn from thirteen children with ADHD who had completed the MFT and attended the focus group interviews (n = 5) or individual interviews (n = 8) conducted in the post‐treatment phase. The results of the Paired sample t‐test and MANOVA indicated no significant changes on the scores for the four measures adopted (perception of competence, hopefulness, parent‐child relationship and perceived social support) in the pre‐ and post‐treatment for the EG and the CG. Five themes emerged from the narratives of children with ADHD, which revealed the children’s subjective experiences with the MFT: (a) full of fun; (b) building friendships through common experiences; (c) a happy family time; (d) safe space; and (e) positive parental responses and communications.

Family‐Based Intervention for Chinese Families of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Hong Kong, China

“…The treatment efficacy of the adapted MFT model was assessed using a two-group pre-and post-comparison study design (Judd, Smith, & Kidder, 1991). Since the details of the study have been previously described elsewhere (Ma et al, 2018;, here we summarise the research outcomes: (a) parents in the experimental group (EG) who had gone through MFT reported a significant change in perception of children's symptoms from pre-treatment to post-treatment, that is, the parental view of the ADHD symptoms was less pathological and less serious, whereas parents in the control group (CG) who had merely attended psychoeducational talks did not experience a similar change (Ma et al, 2018); (b) MFT had a different impact on fathers and mothers, with fathers in both the EG and the CG reporting a significantly better father-son relationship at post-treatment than pretreatment; in contrast, while the EG mothers' parental efficacy significantly increased from pre-treatment to post-treatment, no significant change was found in parental efficacy for the CG mothers (Lai et al, 2018); (c) the father's active involvement in treatment enhanced the father-child relationship irrespective of the type of treatment provided (Lai et al, 2018); and (d) children with ADHD in both the EG and the CG reported no significant change in perceived competence, hope, and parent-child relationship from pre-treatment to post-treatment (Ma, Lai, Wan & Xia, 2019).…”

“…What they treasured most was the time with their parents in the group and the positive changes in their parents' attitude and parenting practices. The children said their parents had become more empathetic and accepting toward them, both in the group and at home (Ma et al, 2019).…”

Multi-Family Therapy for First Episode Psychosis: Experiences of Families in Singapore

“…It could also prevent the risk of relationship breakdown due to psychosis. Several studies in Asia has suggested on the use of MFT to enhance familial relationships (9)(10)(11)(12). More importantly, there was a greater sense of family cohesion reported by clients and carers.…”

“…This reflects the connection between the group participants and the sense of safety in the group that was established over the course of MFT. The process of creating a safe space in MFT is a joint effort between participants and therapists as illustrated in a study (11). The essence of MFT is to draw on the resources in the group whereby therapists "de-center"-that is becoming less active-over time and enable participants to take more lead in the work (1).…”

“…Multi-Family Therapy (MFT) is a Western-based model that combines the theory and practise of group and family therapies, and its key therapeutic aim is to foster mutual support and learning between families who face similar difficulties (1). Over the last seven decades, MFT has been applied across the world in various settings such as psychosis (2)(3)(4)(5)(6), mood disorders (7), eating disorders (8), child and adolescent mental health (9)(10)(11), family separation and divorce (12), physical health and educational settings (13). The wide range of MFT models and settings makes it difficult to establish a solid evidence base.…”