The comparative effectiveness of parental behavior management training and schema therapy on aggression and oppositional defiant in adolescents

Context: Adolescents with conduct disorder have many problems in oppositional defiant and aggressive behaviors, which can be exacerbated by not treating these problems. Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of parental behavior management training and schema therapy on aggression and oppositional defiant in adolescents. Settings and Design: This was a semi-experimental study with two experimental and control groups with pre- and posttest plan. Materials and Methods: The statistical population of this study included all 63 adolescents girls and boys with conduct disorder in Ahvaz city in 2019, that using the voluntary sampling method, 45 of them were selected and randomly divided into two experimental groups and one control group (each group of 15 people). To collect the data of aggression questionnaire of Buss and Perry (1992) and oppositional defiant questionnaire of Harada et al. (2004) was used. The experimental groups underwent parental behavior management training (9 sessions 60 min) and group schema therapy (8 sessions 90 min), but the control group received no training. Statistical Analysis Used: The collected data were analyzed using analysis of covariance using the SPSS version 24. Results: The results showed that parental behavior management training had a greater effect than group schema therapy on the improvement of aggression and oppositional defiant (P < 0.01). Conclusions: Parental behavior management training has more effectiveness on reducing aggression and coping disobedience and it can have practical implications for therapists.