The effectiveness of group story therapy on emotional-behavioral aspects of self-concept of female children in family-like community centers

Self-concept of children in family-like centers due to the loss of parents educational-psychological being and lack of their effective support is at risk. So, the purpose of this study has been to examine the effectiveness of group story therapy on self-concept in female children living in family-like community centers of Mashhad. The design of this study was Quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and follow-up that within26 children participated and were allocated to experimental group, quasi-control and control groups randomly. The experimental group participated in 10 two-hour sessions of group story therapy twice a week. All participants completed Piers-Harris children self-concept scale at pre-test, post-test and then a one-month follow-up. Variance analysis with repeated measures indicated that this intervention can increase the experimental group overall self-concept and its happiness than two other groups significantly from pre-test to post-test but these differences have not been significant from post-test to follow up. As well as, the group story therapy could reduce the experimental group anxiety than two others significantly from pre-test to post -test. It is necessary to mention that the group story therapy could not increase behavioral adjustment, body image and popularity of experimental group significantly. It seems that group story therapy is an effective method to increase the self-concept of children living in family-like community centers but more research is needed in this context.