Effectiveness of Play Therapy and Story Therapy on Depression and Anxiety Skills among Children with Leukemia: A Comparative Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Health Psychology, Kish International Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kish Island, Iran

2 Department of Health Psychology, Kish International Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kish Island, Iran; Associate Professor, Army University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Health Psychology, Kish International Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kish Island, Iran; Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background: Cancers are the most important cause of disease-related deaths, and children with leukemia have poor social skills and are very aggressive.
 
Objectives: This study aimed to compare the effects of play therapy and story therapy on social skills and aggression in children with leukemia.
 
Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design and a three-month follow-up. The statistical population included all children with leukemia referred to Mahak Center in 2019. The samples (n=45) were selected and equally divided into one control and two experimental groups. The follow-up stage was performed on all groups 3 months after the post-test. The research instruments included questionnaires, namely the Children's Aggression Questionnaire and Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA.
 
Results: Both treatments had a significant effect on social skills and aggression in leukemia children (P<0.05), compared to the control group. However, play therapy had a greater impact on social skills and aggression than story therapy (P<0.05).
 
Conclusion: The effectiveness of play therapy was more than story therapy on social skills and aggression in leukemia children; consequently, play therapy is recommended for children.
 

Keywords

Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

 

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Razavi International Journal of Medicine
Volume 10, Issue 4
December 2022
Pages 9-14

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