The Effectiveness of Adlerian Play Therapy on Social Skills of Children with Social Anxiety Disorder: A Time-Series Design

Social anxiety disorder in children may consequence in avoiding of social interactions and can lead to social dysfunction in adulthood. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of Adlerian play therapy on social skills of children with social anxiety disorder.

The present study was a quasi–experimental time-series design with a control group. The sample consisted of 10 children with social anxiety that were selected by available sampling method according to the clinical interview of the psychologist and the cut-off score in the social anxiety questionnaire (Liebowitz, 1987). The children were randomly assigned into experimental and control groups, and the experimental group received 8 sessions of Adlerian play therapy, while the experimental group did not receive any special intervention. The Data gathered using social skills questionnaire (Gresham & Elliot, 1990) in five phases, pre-test, 2th, 4th, 6th sessions and post-test, and analyzed using analysis of variance with repeated measures.

The results showed there was a difference between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups in social skills (P <0.01, F = 63.52); Bonferroni post hoc analysis also showed that the difference in social skills scores between 1 and 3 (p = 0.039) 1 and 4 (p = 0.007) and 1 and 5 (p = 0.002) phases was significant but this difference was insignificant in the control group.

Adlerian play therapy is effective on social skills of children with social anxiety disorder and can be offered as a complementary intervention along with other medical and psychological treatments to these children.