Study Preregistration: Do Parenting Programs Change Interrelations Among Child Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional-Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder Characteristics? Individual Participant Data Network Analysis.

There is high co-occurrence between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and disruptive behavior problems in children, including oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD).1 Recommended non-pharmacological interventions for managing ADHD, ODD, and CD characteristics in children largely overlap, with behavioral parent training programs showing empirical evidence of effectiveness.2,3 By improving parent-child interaction patterns, these programs may also interrupt cycles linking characteristics of ADHD with ODD and CD in children. For example, after intervention, children may be less likely to argue and fight with their parents when restrained from leaving their seat. However, much parenting program research relies on composite scores, which capture overall intervention effects but offer limited insight into how changes in specific characteristics contribute to overall improvement. In the present study, we will pool data from around 44 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of parenting programs for children with ADHD and/or disruptive behavior problems, yielding a large sample suitable for applying network analysis to better understand how parenting programs change the interplay among child ADHD, ODD, and CD characteristics.