Quality of Parent-Child and Sibling Relationships in Families of Children with Symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Background and Purpose: Oppositional defiant disorder is one of the most common behavioral disorders in children, which causes severe destruction of the child's interpersonal relationships. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the parent-child and sibling relationships quality in families with and without children with symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder. Method: The design of this research is a causal-comparative. The statistical population included all male and female students of elementary school (from grade three to six) with and without symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder in Rudsar in the academic year of 2017-2018, and the sample included 130 of them (65 students in each group) who were selected through convenient sampling method. The tools used for this research included the oppositional defiant disorder rating scale (Hommersen & et al, 2006), parent-child relationship scale (PCRS) (Fine & et al, 1983), sibling inventory of behavior (SIB) (Hetherington & et al, 1999), and clinical interview. Data were analyzed using t-test and multivariate analysis of variance. Results: The results showed that there is a significant difference between the group with and without symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder in terms of quality of father-child relationship, mother-child relationship, parent-child relationship, as well as the sibling relationships. The mean of group with symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder in each of these variables was significantly less than the group without symptoms of disorder (P <0.001). Conclusion: The behaviors of a child with oppositional defiant disorder, mutually, lead to inappropriate parenting behaviors and conflicts between siblings, and, as a result, weaken the quality of relationships between family members.