Volume 5, Issue 3 (Vol 5, No 3 (17) 2024)
2024, 5(3): 28-38 |
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Ranjdoust S, Pakdoost N. (2024). The effectiveness of play therapy on emotional and behavioral disorders of preschool children in Marand city. Journal of Childhood Health and Education. 5(3), : 3 doi:10.32592/jeche.5.3.28
URL: http://jeche.ir/article-1-198-en.html
URL: http://jeche.ir/article-1-198-en.html
1- Associate Professor Department of curriculum planinng,Marand branch,Islamic Azad University, Marand, Iran
2- PhD student Curriculum, Department of curriculum planinng,Marand branch,Islamic Azad University, Marand, Iran
2- PhD student Curriculum, Department of curriculum planinng,Marand branch,Islamic Azad University, Marand, Iran
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Extended Abstract Background and Aim: Psychologists believe that the early years of childhood play a crucial role in shaping a child's personality and future. A child's physical and mental health largely depends on the relationship they have with their family and the extent to which the family strives to meet their needs (McGraw, 2012). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health is a state of well-being in which an individual realizes their own potential, can cope with the everyday stresses of life, work productively, and contribute meaningfully to society (WHO, 2019).
Behavioral disorders are common and debilitating problems that pose numerous challenges for both families and children and are associated with a high prevalence of issues and negative social outcomes (Pothardt et al., 2021; Sohrabi and Hasani, 2017). Early identification and intervention for children with mental health and behavioral problems can help minimize long-term damage and reduce the burden and costs of mental disorders on parents. In this regard, Tilley emphasizes that screening should become a routine part of school programs (McGraw, 2021). Students with mental health issues are at risk of various emotional-social disorders, such as anxiety, depression, anger, low self-esteem, poor social acceptance, and difficulties in forming and maintaining friendships. Some of these students experience high levels of stress, anxiety, loneliness, and depression (Pirzadi, 2016).
Given the vulnerability of children with mental health problems to emotional-social disorders and considering the lack of attention to these issues in this group, addressing this matter is crucial to helping these children (Berger, 2012; Amster, 2021; Borland, 2023). Reducing children's behavioral problems is a key focus of this study, which examines the effectiveness of play therapy based on a behavioral approach in alleviating the behavioral problems of preschool children. The present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of play therapy on emotional-behavioral disorders in preschool children in Marand County. The main research question is as follows:
Does the effectiveness of play therapy based on a cognitive-behavioral approach have a significant impact on the emotional-social disorders of children in Marand County? Methods: This study is applied in terms of its aim and falls under the category of quasi-experimental research. The research design is a pretest-posttest with a control group, and the subjects were selected purposefully. After conducting the tests and prior to the intervention of the independent variable, the selected participants were randomly assigned to two groups, experimental and control. After applying the independent variable, both groups were re-evaluated using the same tests, and following scoring, the data were analyzed based on statistical questions. The statistical population of this study consisted of preschool students in Marand County. According to experts, in experimental and quasi-experimental methods, an appropriate sample size for each group is between 15 and 22 participants (Delavar, 2022). The sample size for this research included 44 preschool children from Marand County, selected through the convenience sampling method. The samples were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group (n=22 each). The data collection tool was the Children's Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire by Garnefski et al. (2007), whose validity was confirmed by expert opinion, and its reliability was verified with Cronbach's alpha. The questionnaire was completed by the instructor during the pre-test and post-test stages. After selecting the participants, they were randomly divided into two groups (n=22 participants each), and the Social-Emotional Disorders Questionnaire was distributed to both groups. Afterward, the experimental group received group-based play therapy sessions following a cognitive-behavioral approach, while the control group received no training sessions. At the end of sessions, psychological health and social-emotional disorders tests were administered to both groups. There were eight 30-minute training sessions in total, held twice a week for each group. Multivariate covariance analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: The research sample consisted of 44 preschool children aged 5 to 6 years. The mean age scores of the participants in the experimental and control groups were 5.53±0.512 and 5.4±0.498 years, respectively. To examine the study's assumptions, the homogeneity between the pre-tests and post-tests was first calculated. The primary question sought to investigate the impact of play therapy based on the cognitive-behavioral approach on children's social-emotional disorders. In order to determine whether the observed differences between the groups were statistically significant, inferential analysis was required. The analysis result showed that the independent variable (i.e., play therapy) had a significant impact on the dependent variable (i.e., psychological well-being), with a 15% confidence level. Although there was an apparent difference in the mean scores between the two groups in the pre-test and post-test, a separate analysis was needed to determine the actual and significant difference. Levene's test results indicated the establishment of homogeneity of error variances in the two groups, and the results of the M-Box test confirmed the homogeneity of variance/covariance matrices. The result above demonstrated that the independent variable (i.e., play therapy) had a significant impact on the dependent variable (i.e., social-emotional disorders), with a 15% confidence level. The correlation between the two variables, psychological well-being and social-emotional disorders, was found to be r = 0.545, and it was significant at the 1/21 level. Thus, the null hypothesis of no correlation between the two variables was rejected, confirming that the two variables had a positive relationship with an 11% probability. Discussion and conclusion: The aim of the present study was to investigate whether cognitive-behavioral play therapy had an impact on children's social-emotional disorders and the improvement of preschool health. The results of the covariance analysis indicated that the mean health improvement scores in the experimental group significantly changed in the post-test, while the mean scores in the control group showed no significant change. These findings are consistent with the results of studies by Pothert et al. (2021), Mi-Young and Kim (2012), Moon (2019), Sudowson (2021), and Borland (2023). Therefore, it can be concluded that cognitive-behavioral play therapy is effective in improving health and reducing social-emotional disorders in preschool students. Other researchers have also shown that cognitive-behavioral play therapy plays an important role in improving health and social-emotional disorders (Berger, 2012; Amster, 2021; Babaei Kafki et al., 2023). In explaining these findings, it can be stated that play therapy is a type of counseling or psychotherapy that uses play to assess, prevent, or treat psychosocial problems. Although this method can also be adopted for adults, it is mostly applied to children. The results of the covariance analysis also demonstrated that the mean scores of social-emotional disorders in the experimental group changed significantly in the post-test, whereas the mean scores in the control group showed no significant change. These findings are consistent with those reported by Sohrabi and Hasani (2017), Jalil Abkenar et al. (2022), Namazi (2022), Pirzadi (2016), Fallahi (2021), and Heidari et al. (2019). 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Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
General
Received: 2023/09/23 | Accepted: 2024/01/21 | Published: 2024/06/6
Received: 2023/09/23 | Accepted: 2024/01/21 | Published: 2024/06/6
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