Discussion
As shown in Table A.2, it is demonstrated that modified CBGT
significantly influenced three assessments of SNAP, PSI-SF (Total),
PSI-SF (DC), Barratt (N), and CONNERS (CP), CONNERS (P), and CONNERS
(A). Nevertheless, the results indicate that CBGT is not effective on
PSI-SF (PD), PSI-SF (PCDI), CONNERS (P), CONNERS (A), CONNERS (I),
Barratt (M), Barratt (A), Barratt (Total) scores. One possible reason
for the ineffectiveness is that the group intervention cannot be
effective in every aspect by itself. Despite the use of medication, CBGT
for children with ADHD only contains a short period of treatment,
resulting in many unrelieved symptoms that require long-term management.
In addition, a study indicates that children with ADHD who have a poor
family environment, specifically low education levels, inferior
occupation status, and unstable emotions, may be more likely to develop
ADHD (Huang et al., 2018). The data in Table A.1 indicate a number of
external factors, including children’s personalities, family members’
involvement, and daily income, that may contribute to the insignificant
data on ADHD. As a result of these effects, different subsets of the
scale may exhibit nuances.
Two subsets of data indicate that CBGT intervention has no significant
effect on non-planning impulsiveness in children or parental distress
among parents; however, the intervention significantly alters parents’
basic cognition of ADHD and provides better flexibility and
understanding in their relationship with their children. As a result,
modified CBGT counseling was successful in reducing ADHD-related
symptoms, as well as parenting stress caused by
According to research (Hamed, 2015), ADHD is one of the most frequently
diagnosed disorders in children and adolescents (Theule et al., 2018),
with a prevalence rate of 5%-11%. In spite of this high prevalence
rate, there is a low level of consultation and compliance due to a lack
of understanding or even a misunderstanding of ADHD in China. In light
of these misunderstandings, parents are more likely to form negative
opinions regarding their children’s current situation and future, which
greatly inhibits positive family relationships. The importance of CBGT
intervention for ADHD patients in China is therefore exceptional. It is
possible to eliminate their misperceptions and rejections of their
children due to their abnormal functioning by offering targeted
professional parent courses. By participating in CBGT courses, parents
were able to re-build their confidence regarding the restoration of
family relationships, while gaining a greater understanding of their
child’s prognosis. Furthermore, interveners and parents can communicate
and receive feedback during the class to improve the skills of parents
in mastering education methods applied to practical problems, which may
alleviate their anxiety and depression to a certain degree.
In the meantime, CBGT interventions had significant positive effects on
children as well. Parents may initiate using a positive parenting
approach to children when they have reached a certain level of ease,
such as a peaceful and harmonious way of communicating with their
children instead of blaming and criticizing them repeatedly. Due to such
conversion, children with ADHD were more likely to comply with the
corresponding drug treatment and thereby increased the effectiveness of
the treatment. Likewise, when children with ADHD symptoms subsided,
parents may be able to confirm the effectiveness of the intervention and
thereby greatly increase compliance with consultations and pharmacology.
By utilizing CBGT courses as a trigger, we are able to manipulate
self-recovery by pushing both parents and children into the cycle. In
short, the CBGT parents course prevented parents from misinterpreting
ADHD symptoms in order to reduce anxiety caused by unknowns, as well as
educating them the accurate ways to interaction with children.
Conversely, when the symptoms of ADHD were significantly reduced
following CBGT courses, so was the level of parenting stress.
Accordingly, low anxiety promotes more positive education and a relaxed
family environment, which in turn accelerates the rehabilitation of
children with ADHD symptoms.
Although the result was promising and anticipated, the process of
performing group therapy on children with ADHD and emotional problems
was particularly difficult. The children typically exhibited a lack of
self-control and compliance in class, resulting in a distraction of more
than 90 minutes during a 120-minute class. The children did not only
exhibit hyperactivity, but also emotional dysregulation and aggressive
behavior, which made it difficult for us to control them (Schoorl et
al., 2016). The observed characteristics of these children with ADHD who
lack self-control and experience emotional dysfunction suggest that they
might have trouble functioning well in the society. ADHD would be a
long-term issue without early intervention, as Hamed et al. (2015)
found, about 1/3 to 1/5 ADHD patients will have persistent symptoms into
their adulthood. The prolonged effects of ADHD engender plenty of
inabilities in social adjustment along the lifetime of ADHD patients.
Halperin et al. (2012) evidenced that environmental and physical
influences can affect one’s neural development, leading to long-term
track of ADHD symptoms, which may cause irreversible social dysfunction.
Based on this concept, early treatment of ADHD avoids enduring impacts
by reducing the likelihood of being exposed to neurodevelopmental
disorder for a long time. Therefore, this study gathered children with
ADHD at their preadolescent ages in order to intervene at the optimal
period of time that renders the best outcome of treating ADHD symptoms.