Assessing the Effectiveness of Child-Centered Play Therapy in Reducing Behavioral Disorders of Primary School Children

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of child-centered play therapy in reducing behavioral disorders of primary school children. This research was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest control group design. The sample consists of 30 primary school children suffering from behavioral disorders, who referred to the Center for Counseling and Psychological Services of District 3of Education Department in Mashhad. The participants were assigned to experimental and control groups (15 individuals in each group). Members of the experimental group received 12 sessions of child-centered play therapy while no particular treatment was provided for the control group. Before and after the intervention, Rutter’s behavioral disorder scale was applied to the sample. The results of multivariate analysis of covariance indicated that in the post-test, the score of behavioral disorders in children of the experimental group had a significant decrease compared to the control group. The findings of the study revealed that child-centered play therapy reduces primary school children's behavioral disorders.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n3s3p104