Effect of Mother's Emotion Regulation Strategies Training on the Symptoms of Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Background: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as the most common behavioral disorder of childhood, can affect all aspects of a child’s life and their families. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of mother's emotion regulation strategies training on the symptoms of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Materials and Methods: We conducted a quasi-study among mothers with ADHD children (ranged age between 4 and 12 years) in the pediatric clinic of Ibn-e-Sina psychiatric hospital, affiliated to the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Forty-four eligible mothers were randomly allocated to one of two parallel groups; the intervention group (n = 22) was trained for the emotion regulation (eight 90-minute sessions), and control group (n = 22). The Conner’s Parents Rating Scales-Revised Short version (CPRS-R: S) was administered to assess symptoms of ADHD children by mothers. The data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 16.0). Results: The mean value of mothers’ age was 34.7 ± 4.1 years in intervention group and 37.2 ± 6.4 years in control group. The results of independent t-test revealed no significant difference in mean of hyperactivity scores between the two groups before intervention (P>0.05), and a significant difference immediately and one month after the intervention (P<0.05). One-way ANOVA test results showed that the intervention group was significantly different in terms of hyperactivity scores in three different times (P = 0.007). Conclusion: Finding of this study showed that mother's emotion regulation strategies training can be effective in reducing hyperactivity scores in children with ADHD.