ADHD Symptom Severity Following Participation in a Pilot, 10-week, Manualized, Family-Based Behavioral Intervention

Abstract

This investigation examined the effectiveness of a pilot, manualized 10-week intervention of family skills training for ADHD-related symptoms. The intervention combined behavioral parent training and child focused behavioral activation therapy. Participants were families with children ages 7–10 diagnosed with ADHD-Combined Type. This pilot investigation employed a single group, A-B research design comparing posttreatment behavioral symptoms to baseline functioning. Intervention effectiveness was analyzed using paired-samples t tests. Results indicated statistically significant improvements for behavioral symptoms from Time 1 to Time 2 with large main effects for the intervention. Further, intervention effects reduced symptoms below a level of clinical significance and greater than one standard deviation from baseline severity. Implications of combining behavioral activation training for children with ADHD and parent management training are discussed as well as the relevance of these results for improving the effectiveness and portability of empirically supported interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• behavioral activation
• behavioral parent training
• family skills training
• parenting

Completion of this research was supported by internal funding provided by the Psychology Service at Texas Children's Hospital. The author extends his thanks to Dr. Barbara Anderson for her ongoing support of this research and review of formative drafts of this manuscript. Portions of this article were presented at the Kansas Conference in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology in Lawrence, Kansas on October 18, 2008.

Notes

Interventions considered to be “well-established” achieved the highest degree of empirical support, based upon the original Chambless and Hollon (1998) criteria for empirically validated treatments (EVTs) and the application of recent initiatives established by the APA Presidential Task Force on Evidence-Based Practice (2006).