Impact of Primary School Plays on Decrease Depression, Anxiety and Social Avoidance of Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities due to exposure to many challenges have psychological problems such as depression, anxiety and social avoidance. A major part of childrenchr('39')s life is passed on in playing and explorations about the around world of them. Playing is one of the important pillars of healthy development in language, cognition; social competence, self–control and self–esteem grow. As an educational and therapeutic method, playing helps individuals to control mental pressures. Primary school games are a method that could improve childrenchr('39')s psychological problems. Results of some studies have indicated the significant effects of primary school games on social development including communication skills with others and children with intellectual disabilities. Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities is low papulation of the society. However, their problems engage many people. As a result, this research aimed to investigate the impact of primary school plays on decrease depression, anxiety and social avoidance of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The present research was a semi–experimental study with a pre–test and post–test design along with a control group. The population included all students with intellectual and developmental disabilities of the elementary level of Urmia city (West Azarbaijan province, Northwest of Iran) in 2016–17 academic years. Totally 30 individuals were selected through the available sampling method and randomly assigned into two equal groups. The experimental group training 21 sessions (3 times a week) with a primary school plays method. Every two groups completed the questionnaire of anxiety, depression, and mood (Esbensen, 2003) as a pre–test and post–test. The survey consists of 28 items, and it is scored using a four–point Likert scale from zero (no behavior observed) to three (happens a lot). The validity of the questionnaire for psychiatric diagnosis was obtained using the correlation between subscales of depression, anxiety, and social avoidance with a total test to be 0.70, 0.68 and 0.70, and reliability of 0.80, 0.83, and 0.83 respectively. Data were analyzed using SPSS–19 software and univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance.

Findings showed that in the post–test stage, depression, anxiety, and social avoidance of the case group was lower than the control group. Also, to investigate the significance of the effect of the independent variable on dependent ones, Hotellingchr('39')s Trace, as well as MANCOVA, was employed the results of which showed that primary school games have a significant effect at least on one of the dependent variables (p<0.001, Eta=0.43, F=24.16). Besides, Eta squared was 0.43, where the dependent variable explains 43% of the total variance. To investigate whether primary school games have had a significant effect on depression, anxiety, or social avoidance variables, univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was employed. Results showed that primary school games had a significant effect on all three variables of depression, anxiety, and social avoidance. Eta–squared showed that 38% of changes in depression, 28% of changes in anxiety, and 31% of changes in social avoidance result from the effect of primary school games. As a result, primary school plays significantly led to decrease depression, anxiety, and social avoidance of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (p<0.01).

Result showed that counselors, clinical psychologists and therapists to reduce negative psychological characteristics (depression, anxiety and social avoidance) could be used primary school plays as an efficient method.