The efficacy of mindfulness-based intervention for adolescents with attention deficit/hyperactivity symptoms and externalizing problems on reducing mother–adolescent conflict

Introduction: Employing mindfulness-based intervention in diverse areas of children, adolescents and families’ mental health is growing increasingly. This method, it seems, could be a unique option in controlling parent-child/adolescent conflicts in the families of adolescents with attention deficit/hyperactivity symptoms and externalizing problems, regarding its effect on the capacity of empathy and emotion regulation, as well as executive functions. Here we examine the efficacy of mindfulness-based intervention for adolescents with attention deficit/hyperactivity symptoms and externalizing problem on reducing mother-adolescent conflict. Methods: Child behavior checklist (CBCL), Youth self-report (YSR) of Achenbach system of empirically-based assessment (ASEBA) and parent-adolescent conflict questionnaire (PACQ-A) was administered to a sample of 253 adolescent-mother dyads who accepted the project invitation. 24 adolescents who scored borderline in attention problem subscale, high in externalizing problems scale of CBCL and PACQ-A, and their scores had been confirmed in youth self-report, were chosen and randomly assigned to two experimental (n=12) and control (n=12) groups. The experimental group received 8 weekly mindfulness-based intervention sessions, each taking 2 hours. The adolescents of the control group did not received any intervention for the same duration. Quantitative data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). Results: The experimental group showed a significant reduction in frequency and intensity of conflict, as compared to control group. The multivariate Ƞ 2 based on Wilks's Λ was strong, 0.44 . Conclusion: The results provided additional and promising evidence for the efficacy of the mindfulness-based intervention in reducing the mother-adolescent conflict in the family of adolescents with attention deficit/hyperactivity symptoms and externalizing problems, and may be of pr