Elsevier

Behavior Therapy

Volume 42, Issue 3, September 2011, Pages 462-474
Behavior Therapy

Effectiveness of the Challenging Horizons After-School Program for Young Adolescents With ADHD☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2010.11.008Get rights and content

Abstract

There are no empirically supported psychosocial treatments for adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study examined the treatment benefits of the Challenging Horizons Program (CHP), a psychosocial treatment program designed to address the impairment and symptoms associated with this disorder in young adolescents. In addition to evaluating social and academic functioning outcomes, two critical questions from previous studies pertaining to the timing, duration, and family involvement in treatment were addressed. Forty-nine students recruited in two cohorts were randomly assigned to receive either the CHP or a community care condition. Outcomes suggested that students who received the CHP improved compared to students in the control condition on measures of symptoms and impairment. Implications related to timing, duration, and family involvement are reported, as well as recommendations for future studies.

Section snippets

The Challenging Horizons Program

The after-school model of the CHP involves students staying after school to participate in group and individual interventions targeting academic and social functioning. The program is held 2–4 days per week, for about 2 hours each, for a portion or all of the academic year. Family and parenting groups are part of the CHP and all interventions are intended to help students learn to master the skills necessary to independently succeed socially and academically. The studies of the CHP after-school

Participants

Participants were 49 students in sixth through eighth grades in two Virginia middle schools recruited in two cohorts over 2 successive academic years. Thirty-one participants were randomly assigned to the treatment group over both years (n = 15 in year 1 and n = 16 in year 2) and 18 were randomly assigned to the control group (n = 9 in year 1 and n = 9 in year 2. Overall, there were 24 total participants in year 1 and 25 in year 2. Participants ranged in age from 10 to 13 at the time of entry into the

Results

Analyses were conducted to compare symptom and functioning outcomes between the treatment and control conditions using parent and teacher ratings on the DBD and IRS, as well as teacher ratings on the CPS. For all participants, there were six measurement occasions, beginning with the intake assessment and then once each month from January through May. Descriptive statistics for each outcome measure over each measurement occasion are provided in Table 2. All outcome data were analyzed using

Discussion

The present study examined the benefits of a school-based psychosocial treatment program designed to improve academic and social functioning of young adolescents with ADHD. The results indicate that after 5 months of the CHP following the FCU, there were benefits for the treatment group, but improvement appears to be less than previously reported when the program was provided for the entire academic year (Evans, Langberg, et al., 2005) or 4 days per week during the first semester (Langberg et

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    ☆

    Supported by the NIMH Grant R34MH073968; S. Evans P.I.

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