Background and purpose: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common psychiatric disorder of childhood that is associated with parent-child conflict and parental stress. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of delivering behavioral management training to parents and narrative therapy to children on the quality of mother-child relationship in children with ADHD.

Materials and methods: A quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest and control group was performed. The research population included all children aged 7 to 12 years old with ADHD and their mothers in Sari, Iran. A total of 30 cases were selected and divided into three groups. The mothers in first group attended nine sessions of behavioral management training which were presented according to Barkley’s pattern. Group narrative therapy was done among children in second group for eight sessions, while the third group received no training. Parent-child Stress Index was used for data collection.

Results: The results showed that the mean of post-test score for parent-child conflict in first group was 78.11±16.78 and in narrative therapy group was 76.9±13.92, indicating no significant difference between these two groups, but the score in control group was 96.22±22.95 that was significantly higher compared with the experimental groups (P<0.05).

Conclusion: The results showed no significant difference between behavioral management training to parents and narrative therapy in improving the quality of mother-child relationship in children with ADHD and compared with the control group, both methods were found to be significantly effective in improving the quality of mother-child relationships.