Volume 24, Issue 92 (5-2024)
refahj 2024, 24(92): 345-368 |
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Mir khezri H, Mahmoud Fakhe H, karimi S. (2024). The Effectiveness of Child-Centered Play Therapy on Increasing Assertiveness and Social Skills of Preschool Children of a Divorced Family. refahj. 24(92), : 10 doi:10.32598/refahj.24.92.4303.1
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URL: http://refahj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-4177-en.html
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Introduction
The most basic problems faced by children of divorce are problems in self-expression skills and social skills. Self-expression or self-assuredness is one of the components of social strengthening that makes a difference in individuals managing the difficulties of their way of life and bargaining with upsetting circumstances. This skill helps people express their opinions, needs, and rights freely and, honestly without unnecessary anxiety and worry while protecting the rights of others (Haroon Rashidi, H., & Abdepour Sabzghabaei, 2020). Due to the importance of this feature, the training of assertiveness skills has become a structured intervention method that is used to improve the effectiveness of social relations, during which a person expresses his thoughts and feelings positively, and in this way, while considering the rights of others also gain their rights (Yaghoobi, Kolivand, Kord Noghabi & Rashid, 2022) and all of this will become the basis for establishing a right relationship and improving social skills, a skill that is already mentioned as one of the variables affected by divorce, and social abilities is referred to as a set of worthy obtained behaviors that empower an individual to have a viable relationship with others and dodge outlandish social responses. Social skills are mainly acquired through learning (observation, imitation, information, and practice) and include verbal and non-verbal behaviors, such as speech, gesture, facial expression, body language, etc. (Halil & Baran, 2022). Social skills include a wide range of skills, among which we can mention: the ability to listen, identify the emotions of the other party, express emotions, empathize, manage challenging emotions, willingness to be generous, cooperate, avoid bullying and humiliating others, being grateful (Salehi Seresht & Jafari Harandi, 2022). With all these definitions, unfortunately, due to the environmental and emotional conditions they experience, children of divorce will face weak social skills and self-expression, so in this research, we used a child-centered play therapy approach to improve these skills. Play therapy is a method in which therapists, using a theoretical model, use the powers of play therapy to help therapists prevent or solve psychosocial problems and achieve the desired growth and development of children (Sarah, Parson, Renshaw, & Stagnitti, 2021). Using a child-centered approach requires that the treatment session is based on the child’s behaviors, desires, and interests. In this method, no attempt is made to control and change the child. This point can have positive effects on the thoughts and emotions of a child with behavioral problems. When children discover that during play they have real freedom to choose in their own way, they often move quickly to objects that symbolize their feelings and circumstances. Child-centered play therapy has a unique security in it that provides both acceptance and therapy for children (Shahriari, Ghasemzadeh & Vakili, 2019). Considering that childhood is the most important and sensitive period for the formation of each person’s personality, neglecting it will lead to irreparable results. The sensibility of this developmental stage and the results of research findings that the play therapy method is useful in reducing common childhood disorders were an incentive for the current research. In this research, attempts were made to answer the question of whether play therapy has an effect on social skills and assertiveness in divorced preschool children.
Methods
The inquiry strategy utilized for the show Think About was a quasi-experimental strategy with a pre-test-post-test plan with test and control the measurable populace included all preschool children of a separated family in Mahabad within the scholastic year 2022-2023. Twenty children were chosen by the Convenience Sampling method and were examined after they were arbitrarily designated to test and control groups (10 subjects in each bunch). The experimental group underwent play therapy training for 10 sessions (1 hour each) for five weeks and the control bunch did not get any preparation. Moreover, The information was collected employing a Gambrill-Richey Assertiveness Scale (1975) and Social Skills Rating Scale (ROSS) (Truscott, 1989). Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential insights with multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) were utilized to analyze the collected information. It ought to be famous that all calculations were worn out in the SPSS-26 environment.
Results
A total of 20 children participated in the study. The mean and standard deviation (social skills pre-test) were 27.963 and 2.884, respectively, and for the control group(pre-test), these were 28.696 and 3.489, respectively.
Table 1: Results of multivariate covariance post-test dimensions of assertiveness and social skills
According to Table 4, a noteworthy contrast has been watched between the amount of social inadequacy, social skills, communication with peers, and boldness in the two experimental and control groups after child-centered play therapy group training, in other words, child-centered play therapy group training increases social skills, communication with peers and daring and reducing social inadequacy has had an effect. Considering the squared etas, it can be said that inadequacy 30.6% and social skills 27.9%, communication with peers 23.2%, and assertiveness 63% of these changes were caused by the effect of child-centered play therapy intervention or group training. .
Discussion
The present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of child-centered play therapy on social skills and assertiveness in divorced preschool children in Mahabad City. The discoveries of this inquiry appeared that play treatment had a positive and noteworthy impact on progressing the social abilities and confidence of divorced children. The results of this finding are consistent with the research of Afzalkhani (2022), Hashemi and Mohammadi (2019), Hassani, Alipour, Safarinia and Aghayosefiv(2021), Mir, Fahimifar and Azad (2020), Ebrahimi, Aslipoor and Khosrojavid (2019). According to the results of the current study, it can be concluded that child-centered play therapy can be an effective element in increasing assertiveness and social skills, therefore, requires special consideration from teachers and those involved in education.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
Ethical principles were fully observed in this research. The participants were fully satisfied with their presence in this research, they were informed about the research process and they were also allowed to withdraw from the research whenever they wanted.
Funding
This research has not received any funding from funding organizations in the public, commercial, or non-profit sectors.
Authors’ contributions
All authors participated in all stages of the research.
Conflicts of interest
This research has no conflict of interest.
The most basic problems faced by children of divorce are problems in self-expression skills and social skills. Self-expression or self-assuredness is one of the components of social strengthening that makes a difference in individuals managing the difficulties of their way of life and bargaining with upsetting circumstances. This skill helps people express their opinions, needs, and rights freely and, honestly without unnecessary anxiety and worry while protecting the rights of others (Haroon Rashidi, H., & Abdepour Sabzghabaei, 2020). Due to the importance of this feature, the training of assertiveness skills has become a structured intervention method that is used to improve the effectiveness of social relations, during which a person expresses his thoughts and feelings positively, and in this way, while considering the rights of others also gain their rights (Yaghoobi, Kolivand, Kord Noghabi & Rashid, 2022) and all of this will become the basis for establishing a right relationship and improving social skills, a skill that is already mentioned as one of the variables affected by divorce, and social abilities is referred to as a set of worthy obtained behaviors that empower an individual to have a viable relationship with others and dodge outlandish social responses. Social skills are mainly acquired through learning (observation, imitation, information, and practice) and include verbal and non-verbal behaviors, such as speech, gesture, facial expression, body language, etc. (Halil & Baran, 2022). Social skills include a wide range of skills, among which we can mention: the ability to listen, identify the emotions of the other party, express emotions, empathize, manage challenging emotions, willingness to be generous, cooperate, avoid bullying and humiliating others, being grateful (Salehi Seresht & Jafari Harandi, 2022). With all these definitions, unfortunately, due to the environmental and emotional conditions they experience, children of divorce will face weak social skills and self-expression, so in this research, we used a child-centered play therapy approach to improve these skills. Play therapy is a method in which therapists, using a theoretical model, use the powers of play therapy to help therapists prevent or solve psychosocial problems and achieve the desired growth and development of children (Sarah, Parson, Renshaw, & Stagnitti, 2021). Using a child-centered approach requires that the treatment session is based on the child’s behaviors, desires, and interests. In this method, no attempt is made to control and change the child. This point can have positive effects on the thoughts and emotions of a child with behavioral problems. When children discover that during play they have real freedom to choose in their own way, they often move quickly to objects that symbolize their feelings and circumstances. Child-centered play therapy has a unique security in it that provides both acceptance and therapy for children (Shahriari, Ghasemzadeh & Vakili, 2019). Considering that childhood is the most important and sensitive period for the formation of each person’s personality, neglecting it will lead to irreparable results. The sensibility of this developmental stage and the results of research findings that the play therapy method is useful in reducing common childhood disorders were an incentive for the current research. In this research, attempts were made to answer the question of whether play therapy has an effect on social skills and assertiveness in divorced preschool children.
Methods
The inquiry strategy utilized for the show Think About was a quasi-experimental strategy with a pre-test-post-test plan with test and control the measurable populace included all preschool children of a separated family in Mahabad within the scholastic year 2022-2023. Twenty children were chosen by the Convenience Sampling method and were examined after they were arbitrarily designated to test and control groups (10 subjects in each bunch). The experimental group underwent play therapy training for 10 sessions (1 hour each) for five weeks and the control bunch did not get any preparation. Moreover, The information was collected employing a Gambrill-Richey Assertiveness Scale (1975) and Social Skills Rating Scale (ROSS) (Truscott, 1989). Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential insights with multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) were utilized to analyze the collected information. It ought to be famous that all calculations were worn out in the SPSS-26 environment.
Results
A total of 20 children participated in the study. The mean and standard deviation (social skills pre-test) were 27.963 and 2.884, respectively, and for the control group(pre-test), these were 28.696 and 3.489, respectively.
Table 1: Results of multivariate covariance post-test dimensions of assertiveness and social skills
| Variables | Components of dependent variables | sum of squares | Df | F | sig | Impact factor |
| social skills | Social inadequacy | 11.010 | 1 | 6.622 | 0.021 | 0.306 |
| social skill | 9.992 | 1 | 5.796 | 0.029 | 0.297 | |
| Communication with peers | 4.040 | 1 | 5.536 | 0.031 | 0.232 | |
| assertiveness | assertiveness | 605.000 | 1 | 28.984 | 0.000 | 0.63 |
Discussion
The present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of child-centered play therapy on social skills and assertiveness in divorced preschool children in Mahabad City. The discoveries of this inquiry appeared that play treatment had a positive and noteworthy impact on progressing the social abilities and confidence of divorced children. The results of this finding are consistent with the research of Afzalkhani (2022), Hashemi and Mohammadi (2019), Hassani, Alipour, Safarinia and Aghayosefiv(2021), Mir, Fahimifar and Azad (2020), Ebrahimi, Aslipoor and Khosrojavid (2019). According to the results of the current study, it can be concluded that child-centered play therapy can be an effective element in increasing assertiveness and social skills, therefore, requires special consideration from teachers and those involved in education.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
Ethical principles were fully observed in this research. The participants were fully satisfied with their presence in this research, they were informed about the research process and they were also allowed to withdraw from the research whenever they wanted.
Funding
This research has not received any funding from funding organizations in the public, commercial, or non-profit sectors.
Authors’ contributions
All authors participated in all stages of the research.
Conflicts of interest
This research has no conflict of interest.
Type of Study: orginal |
Received: 2023/02/17 | Accepted: 2024/01/27 | Published: 2024/05/3
Received: 2023/02/17 | Accepted: 2024/01/27 | Published: 2024/05/3
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